Chasing Freedom
by CasXxGrippedXxMeXxTight
Summary: Anna has always been chasing, rushing after something she felt she could never reach. Now, Worlds End is one of the only things keeping her from it. And she finds herself consumed by the chase, for Jack, for horizons, for freedom.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey! I know I was going to upload Monday, but I figured, why not? So this is the first chapter! I'm excited, are you excited? Heehee.**

** Also, to those of you who care, I will not be doing stranger tides, because I haven't seen it enough to really work with it. I MIGHT, depending on the number of reviews, do a series of oneshots after the end of this story. What say you to that?**

** -Han**

Chasing Freedom

Annabelle rolled her shoulders in the dark alleyways of Singapore, trying to alleviate the tension her weapons were causing. Her stormy eyes were ghosting over the people quietly moving about their business under both hers and the British soldiers' supervision, as they marched in formation over wooden bridges. She ducked back further in to the shadows as they rounded a corner, their muskets held high in the night. The chopsticks holding her hair back brushed against the stone walls and her hand fingered a sword at her side.

Once they passed, she stepped back into the light and looked to her left at the Captain she was traveling with. Barbossa flicked his eyes across the street and made the way easily to the docks, their boots echoing off the walls around him and being drowned out by the slow carnival music Tia was emitting from a cart down the street. Anna shifted her gaze to the water, where a boat glided through the murky water and the sailor rowed to a tune Anna taught them. 'Hoist the Color's' floated through the heavy air, and mixed in her mind until she couldn't think of anything other than the words and the steady marching of her boots.

"Do you think Will's been caught?" she asked softly, for fear her voice would carry.

Barbossa inspected her silently, watching the hollow glow to her stormy eyes and the strong tilt of her chin. "Possibly," he said gruffly.

"And you have a plan for that?" she asked, an eyebrow raised.

"Aye."

She nodded and continued on. The black Asian wrap shirt and baggy black pants she wore, made her blend easily into the backdrop of the streets, and the weapons strapped to her made her movements more careful and slow. The singing continued behind them as they passed a sewer grate, where Anna sent a deft wave to those she knew were hiding there. Barbossa never slowed. His steps were assured and quick as he weaved through alleyways and bridges, bringing them to a stop above the docks.

"…Particularly a woman alone," a dirty Asian man was saying to Elizabeth as she finished her song. Anna thought his teeth were black in some places, and his face smudged with dirt.

"What makes you think she's alone?" Barbossa questioned, asserting his presence by stepping into the light, leaning haphazardly and fingering his sword.

"You protect…them?" he asked, once he saw Anna step into the light. Her eyes narrowed and she resisted the urge to throw a knife through the heavy air.

Elizabeth could not control herself as well. She quickly wound herself around the man, a knife biting into his throat before he could be sure what was happening. Anna rolled her eyes as Elizabeth sneered at the man.

"What makes you think I need protecting?" she asked, her voice attempting to be dangerously low. Anna didn't find her to be threatening, but the man must have, as his hands were shaking by his side.

"Your master's expectin' us. An unexpected death would cast a slight pall on our meetin'," Barbossa said in a bored voice. Anna smiled to herself as Elizabeth put up her hands and scooted away, her eyes still dark.

"Though I doubt he cares much about a lackey," Anna muttered, just loud enough for him to hear. She watched his face darken, and her smile grew. Barbossa jabbed her in the side to get her moving again, and they followed the man through the streets, Anna's boots echoing off the walls once again. She wondered if the staccato beats matched those of her heart. A hollow smile rose to her lips, as she berated herself for her own stupidity. Empty things didn't beat.

"Have you heard from Will?" Elizabeth asked, feigning casual. Anna wondered why she asked, since the pair had been avoiding each other since-since that day. They had rarely spoken and Will had seemed to crumble into himself.

Anna had once again taken up the position of protector and stayed with him, letting him break just enough to mend. They were each other's crutch, supporting one another through dark times. They would brave the world by day, and break together by night, trying to learn to control the pain.

"I trust young Turner to acquire the charts, and you to remember your place in the presence of Captain Sao Feng," Barbossa replied glaring at the two women as they walked.

"Is he that terrifying?" Elizabeth questioned sarcastically, acid dripping from her tongue.

"He's much like myself, but absent my merciful nature and sense of fair play."

"He should be a delight, then," Anna muttered, stopping as the man reached a wooden door in the back of an alley.

"Hoi," he said shortly, and Anna thought that that must be a terrible password. Too easy. She would have expected something better from a Pirate Lord. The door opened and they moved inside, steam hitting them quickly and suffocating them with its humid thickness.

Barbossa dropped his weapons on a table, his sword and pistols clattering onto the wood. Anna removed the single sword she had in view, laying it carefully on the table. Elizabeth dropped he knife and prepared to move past.

"You think because they are women we will not suspect them of treachery?" the same man asked, speaking to Barbossa.

"You think because we are women that you cannot speak to us?" Anna asked, irritated. He glared at her and blatantly let his eyes roam over her body.

"Remove. Please."

Anna sighed and let Elizabeth go first. She removed ten knives and bombs from the leather harness beneath her outer shirt, as well as a small cannon styled gun out of her boot. She smiled demurely and crossed her hands in front of her.

Anna huffed, removing the thin black outer wrap, revealing several layers of hilts and holsters, each one filled with a weapon or ammo. She emptied them all, spilling extra bullets on the floor. She removed her boots, dropping three knives on the table from them and stepped back. She looked up, realizing she'd forgotten something, and fiddled inside her bun before taking out a small, razor thin knife that was set to blend against her chopsticks. She set it on the table and crossed her hands behind her back.

Barbossa stared at her in between shock and appreciation. Elizabeth huffed as if she had been outdone. Both attempted to move up again, when the man stopped them a final time.

"Remove, please," he said with an almost shy smile, indicating their pants. Anna rolled her eyes and muttered something about impropriety while demanding a robe. Her shoulders rolled and she wondered what _he _would think about her just taking it quietly.

She bit her lip, eradicating the thought and doing as she was told. She couldn't afford to think about that now.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey! Okai, so thank you so much for all the favorite stories and the followers, they mean so so much. But, me haz question? Could you review as well? It lets me know what you guys are thinking about the direction of the characters and how I should continue them. I do work off of your feedback, all the time. Thanks so much!**

**-Han**

The sauna room was boiling hot and covered in seaweed and barnacles. Even some of the men in tubs had sea life growing onto their skin, like the crew of the Dutchman. Anna flinched from the thought and pushed herself on, her bare feet avoiding puddles of water as they went.

She looked up and decided that Sao Feng liked entrances, when she noticed him standing with his arms spread wide, back to them. Steam billowed around him, makeup caked girls hovering by his side. He turned slowly and Anna noticed the scars first, crisscrossing and vicious across his left eye, making him look permanently dangerous.

Anna's back refused to bow, her father's face running through her mind and the many ways he would make her, pain radiating through her spine, scars pulling. Barbossa glared at her and she made herself, collapsing her upper half at the waist and staring at the floorboards blankly. She wondered what _he _would have said if he knew she was thinking of her father again. She tried not to do it that often.

"Captain Barbossa…Welcome to Singapore," Sao Feng said in a deep, heavily accented voice. He turned to his servant and said softly, "more steam."

Anna stood back up, her back straight and her hands limp at her side. She looked blankly at the Pirate Lord, waiting for the moment she would have to act on _his _behalf.

"I understand you have a…request to make of me?" he asked, moving towards them slowly. His eyes traveled the three of them, lingering on the exposed skin of Elizabeth and Anna.

"More of a proposal to put to ye. I have a venture underway and happen to find myself in need of ship and a crew," Barbossa said in a voice far calmer and more amiable than Anna had ever heard him use. She lifted a brow at his diplomacy, and smirked to herself when she received a small glare in return.

"That is an odd coincidence," Sao Feng said softly, looking somewhere above their heads in thought.

"Because you happen to have a ship and a crew you don't need?" Elizabeth asked, thankfully keeping her sarcasm at bay.

"No. Because, earlier this day, not far from here, a thief broke into my most revered uncle's temple and tried to make off with these," he held up the rolled up charts that Will had been sent to retrieve. Anna cursed in her mind, deciding that next time; she would take the stealth missions. "The navigational charts. The route to the farthest gate. Wouldn't it be amazing if this venture of yours took you to the world beyond this one?"

"It would strain credulity at that," Barbossa conceded.

"But coincidences do happen, you know," Anna added helpfully, her eyes seeming to come back to reality.

Sao Feng rolled his eyes, and waved his arm at the men standing along a particularly deep tub of water. They heaved up a wooden beam, a man attached to the end, gasping for air. Will shook himself, water pouring from his body as his lungs dragged in air.

"How long has he been down there?" Anna asked casually, as if interested in this method of torture.

"This is the thief," Sao Feng said, choosing to ignore her. "Is his face familiar to you?"

They shook their heads, Anna's face carefully blank. She knew what was likely to happen, and was preparing herself to come to his aid.

"Then I guess there is no further need for him," he said coldly, raising a wooden spike and making to plunge it through Will's midsection. Elizabeth gasped, taking an unconscious step forward. Anna wondered if that meant she still cared. The pirate lord paused, his face contorting into anger, his scars standing out even further. "So, you come into my city, and betray my hospitality."

"Because the dirty man leering at us was hospitable," Anna muttered.

"Sao Feng, I assure I had no idea…" Barbossa cut across her, giving her a murderous look.

"That he would get caught?" he screamed, his dark eyes looking murderous.

"Actually, I figured he might," Anna said, giving a sympathetic glance to Will.

"You intend to attempt a voyage to Davy Jones' locker. When I cannot help but wonder, why?" he asked, ignoring her again.

Barbossa tossed a silver coin at the Pirate Lord, the piece ringing in the silent air as he caught it and held it to his ear. Anna watched the piece of eight and heard it sing and wondered who else in the world was listening to another voice its song.

"The song has been sung. The time is upon us. We must convene the Brethren Court. As one of the nine pirate lords you must honor the call," Barbossa said slowly, his eyes slipping into that dangerous pirate.

"More steam," Sao Feng said softly, looking away. Anna waited, anticipating the flow of steam through the bath house. None came.

"More steam!" he screamed, glaring at his servants. The three guests held their breath, releasing it quietly as the steam once again billowed through the room. Anna hoped their team was moving more carefully now. "There's a price on all our heads, it is true. Since it seems that the only way a pirate can turn a profit anymore is by betraying other pirates..." Sao Feng said slowly, a scowl on his face.

"As would be the definition of the word: pirate," Anna commented quietly gauging his patience.

Barbossa glared at her again, annoyed with her constant jabs. He himself had noticed the crass side of her emerge in the weeks after _his_ death. She had become harsher, more of a pirate.

"The first Brethren Court gave us rule of the seas. That rule has been challenged by Lord Cutler Beckett," Barbossa said in a low growl. He cast a sideways glance at Anna and saw the ring still plainly on her finger. He wondered what she would do with it.

"Against the East India Trading Company, what value is the Brethren Court? What can any of us do?" Sao Feng questioned. Anna growled low in her throat and stepped forward, her head held high and her eyes alight with fire.

"You can fight it!" she said loudly, ignoring Elizabeth's attempts to intrude on what she was saying, instead locking her eyes with the Pirate Lord's. "Who are you to hide from this call? Who are you to cower from the world and its freedoms when it is being held at the point of a sword? Hundreds of your brothers are rising to a call stronger than the tides, and you hide here in fear. Would you allow the Company, of all things, to end this era of freedom, of piracy?" She took a step forward, her glare intensifying. "Ha. And I thought pirates to be greater. More terrifying."

"Princess Annabelle Windsor, the traitor of the crown. The _pirate princess_. There is more to you than the stories suggest, isn't there? More than meets the eye. And the eye does not go wanting," he said softly his eyes trailing over her. "But I cannot help but notice. You have failed to answer my question. What is it you seek in Davy Jones' locker?"

"Jack Sparrow," Will spoke up from his place, his eyes hard. Anna flinched, the name cutting into her like knives. The servant girls giggled, hiding their faces. Her heart felt it would be split again, after she so carefully hardened it to the world, leaving it in wait for the day she could be held by him again. Sometimes she wondered why it took his death for her to realize how she felt. She could never answer other than it was the one moment where all feelings were unguarded, torn from the depths of her being. Ripped out from where she didn't even know they dwelled. "He's one of the Pirate Lords," Will justified, looking as if he regretted having to say it out loud. He sent her a slow sympathetic glance that she took to heart.

Will had not fought her on loving him, only cautioned that he would never be faithful. He would rather not touch on it at all, and pretended she never voiced it, never admitted it. What he had seen on the deck of the Pearl was too much to pass on to her broken heart. Too much for her to bear.

"The only reason I would want Jack Sparrow returned from the land of the dead . . . is so I can send him back myself!" Sao Feng shouted, his fingers anxiously ghosting over his scars. Anna wondered what Jack could have done this time, to earn the disfavor of this man.

"Jack Sparrow holds one of the nine pieces of eight. He failed to pass it along to a successor before he died. So we must go and get him back," Barbossa said, losing patience quickly.

Sao Feng's eyes grew distant for a moment, landing on a man not far from them, his pacing stilling for a moment. He turned back to the group, his eyes hard. "So you admit you have deceived me. Weapons!"

Immediately the seemingly lethargic members jumped to position, weapons raised and faces curled into snarls and sneers. Anna smiled nervously, tapping her feet lightly on the paneled floor, making sure that the ones below knew where she was.

"Sao Feng, I assure you, our intentions are strictly honorable," Barbossa assured a nervous grin on his lips. His hands outstretched slightly, as if in some gesture for mercy, when swords shot from the floor boards, landing easily within all three of their grasps. Anna caught her two deftly, her wrists flicking to hold them more accessibly. Her eyes narrowed dangerously, her muscles itching for her to run, attack, slash.

Sao Feng moved quickly, grabbing a man around the neck and preparing to slash his throat. Anna thought there was something off about him, and noticed his intricate tattoos appeared to be sliding off his skin, melting away in the hot sauna.

"Drop your weapons, or I kill the man!" he shouted, pushing the sword closer to his flesh.

It was silent a moment, before Anna shrugged. "Kill him, he's not our man," she said strongly, looking to Barbossa for support. The Captain nodded, eyeing the man suspiciously. Another wave of silence passed, as their minds sped ahead and leapt to reasoning.

"If he's not with you, and he's not with us...who's he with?" Will asked, his eyes raising in something like fear.

As if they had been waiting for it, The East India Company men burst into the room, wooden splinters scattering among the bath water and shots ringing through the hazy air. Anna cursed and turned, both swords ready. She smiled at the sight of them, and launched herself into the fray, her blades twisting around her and slashing anything within reach.

She caught a glimpse of Will getting himself free and being thrown a sword by Elizabeth and nodded to herself, sure he could handle himself for the moment. She turned back, her hair falling free of her chopsticks and rushing quickly through an opening in the bodied wall of soldiers.

A crazed grin found its way onto her face as she spotted Mr. Mercer, Beckett's dutiful assassin. She cut her way towards him, mercilessly driving her sword where it will, defending herself to her last breath if need be.

"Oh my," she said quietly, watching as a group of regimented soldiers were blown away by Tia Dalma's cart. "That woman is dangerous," she muttered to herself, moving closer to Mercer.

"Mr. Mercer!" she called, her voice carrying even over the shouts and clatter of swords and ring of gunfire. When she was close enough to him to run him through, he saw her. Conscious thought seeming to shoot back into his eyes as he lowered his gun. "If I may have a word," she said properly, her lessons dripping from her tongue. "I was wondering if you could give this back to my dear fiancée?" she asked, slipping the glitzy ring given to her by Beckett off her finger. She dropped it calmly into Mercer's open hand. The man's scar-lined face was blank, confusion evident in the line of his body. Anna smiled. "You see, I doubt he'll want my hand when you tell him I'm renouncing my title," she said, the grin a permanent fixture on her face.

She thought Jack would be proud of her.

While Mercer stared at her, his eyes quickly growing murderous again, she made her escape, dashing down the streets and back into the fray once finding Barbossa. Her hand felt lighter, as did her heart, with the knowledge that she was free. No longer bound to her agreement meant she could follow Jack to the ends of the world all over, once they brought him back. She could do whatever she liked.

She wondered how the man would react, what Jack would think, if he knew she cared for him. Would he treat her like one of his paid girls, treating her for a night, maybe two, and leaving her on the shore the next morning? She wondered if her friendship with him would dissolve the moment she told him, the moment she let it slip from her heart just how deeply it killed her the moment he was gone.

At some point, Will rejoined them, the charts clutched tightly in his hands. He told them they had a ship and crew waiting, and Sao Feng would cover their escape. Anna wondered where the change of heart stemmed from, but followed Will through the dark alleys just the same. Her long hair tangled around her, the dark brown flowing as she ran to the docks, her feet pounding the uneven streets, her body thrumming with her thoughts. At the moment, it didn't matter what might be, because what was, was that she was getting him back. That was all that mattered.


	3. Chapter 3

**Review! Seriously, please? You have no idea how much they mean, and I'm not afraid to withhold a chapter (evil eye) not for long though, so don't freak out. ^_^ I love you guys!**

**-Han**

Anna stood in the dark by the railing of the Asian ship, Tia near her and Will not far. She looked out at the dark water, shimmering in the moonlight and sighed softly.

"Do you ever wonder if you're worth fighting for?" she asked softly, her eyes following the ripples their ship made.

"You do this a lot, don' you?" Tia asked, turning to face her with a patient sort of smile. Anna shrugged, a smile on her lips. Very few had stopped her before she could start.

"It's just the way I am, I suppose."

"And you think dis way?" she asked, looking at her slowly, as if the woman before her was a new puzzle she'd yet to figure out.

"I think everyone does at some point, that's why I ask. I wonder if other people don't think they're worth what they are given, what they receive," Anna said slowly, trying to explain her thinking. Truly, she just said what she felt, and if you were listening, you could learn something.

"And Jack? Is he deservin'?" Tia questioned, moving closer to her, her dirty laces dragging across the deck.

Anna looked up then, her eyes a kind of broken-walled mess that made the voodoo woman blink slowly. "There is very little I can say, Tia, that would sum up exactly how much I care about him. And yes, I will probably end up dying for him in some direct or indirect way, but I made him a promise that I will keep. And nothing will keep me away from it. Not the armies of my father, nor the hand of Beckett, nor the biting sword of Jones himself," she whispered her eyes filling with water until she blinked it back. "So I don't know if he is deserving of anything. I know he is a good man, and I would do almost anything for him."

There was a heavy silence after that and she wondered how many people heard her. She looked steadily at the voodoo woman, who was looking at her with something like pride. She drifted closer to Anna, looking over the water with her.

"Have you wondered what hell is like for Jack?" Anna asked, skimming her fingertips over the wood. Tia looked steadily at her, offering her to move on silently. "I can imagine it so perfectly it scares me. This vast, empty nothing. Rock beneath him, no sign of the sea. Nowhere to go and nothing worth doing," she paused, her eyes misting over. "Nothing, endlessly, A place drained of adventure, of life, of freedom."

"Much like your home?" Tia asked, her accent slurring the words together. Anna flinched slightly, her eyes traveling the horizon.

"Yes. Much like my home."

Another silence came and past and the two rode through it like they would the tides, until Anna spoke again.

"Do you think he'll run from the Court?" Anna asked quietly, her fingers fiddling distractedly over the rail, as she tried to change the subject as smoothly as possibly.

"I cannot say," Tia said softly. "Jack be a man o' many tings, but even men like 'im have come to fear the beast that travel dese waters," she said cryptically, looking out to the nights sky now.

"Was he always such a beast?" Anna asked quietly, her mind picturing the Captain of the Dutchman. Those cold eyes, that had seemed so sad for that one moment Jack talked about love. That had seemed so human. Tia shook her head, her dreadlocks swaying around her mocha face.

"Him was a man, once," she said sadly, her eyes so far away Anna could not reach her. She left her there, staring into the rolling waves forlornly and walked to the helm. Her hand skimmed the railing and she thought of how splintered the Pearl was the last time she touched it, when she was holding on for her life at the pull of the Kraken.

"When should we see the End?" Anna asked Barbossa as she approached the small group huddling around the charts.

"In due time," he answered gravely, his eyes flitting between the wheel and the maps.

"So you have no idea?" Anna asked, leaning against the elegantly carved woodwork.

"There abouts," he admitted with a shrug. Anna sighed, sending a small smile to Will and retreating below decks to change back into her clothes. Her breeches felt familiar on her body and the sea-stained off the shoulder top made her remember the very first day she saw Jack on the docks in Port Royal.

The thought of his name made her knees weak, and she sank into a hammock, a shaky hand running through her hair. She could keep it together when she was surrounded. She could hold it in while she needed to. And the moment she was alone her mind would be consumed by him and she would struggle not to break down. Generally, she would fail.

Now her vest was fastened, and she was curled up in her hammock, her knees at her chest and singing softly to herself about the pirates life, remembering the way he danced around the open flame. Her chest rose and fell in time with her words as the lyrics kept her from picking up her sword and ending it.

"Yo ho, yo ho, a pirates life for me," she sang, her head dropping to her knees. Will had kept her away from anything sharp for the first week and a half, while she immersed herself in the rescue plans. The more devoted she became to them, the more she was allowed to arm herself. Now, while the possibility of death always loomed in her mind, she was able to drown it out by the reality of saving Jack. They were on their way.

Her body still longed for him, to be held and cradled and talked to like she was a human being. Their conversations were unique to them, and she hadn't been able to fill the void with anyone, not even Will. Jack had been something so complete it left her barren without him, stripped of vibrancy and life. She was left with a blunt sarcasm and a quick trigger finger.

She wondered if bringing him back would snap her back in place, or if the process would be slow. She wondered if Jack wouldn't like this new her. She wondered if he would hate her, would leave her.

She wiped her eyes, stray tears leaking from the stormy center. Her eyes rose as Cotton walked down, watching her with his silent steadiness. When he approached her, she shifted on the cot, allowing him to sit with her.

"Thank you," she whispered, leaning against him while he pet her hair softly. The man was like a father to her, silent, strong. She hoped he would survive this great adventure, and curled to him, hoping for some rest.

He didn't respond, only nodded absently to himself and allowed her to fall asleep in the dark room, hammocks swinging back and forth with the movements of the ship. Her eyes slid closed, the hollow blue being hidden by her lids.

He caught her whisper, as she succumbed to her subconscious, her lips open slightly.

"Jack," she sighed, too far gone to even realize she'd said it. Cotton bowed his shoulders, sure it was the first time he'd heard her say the name. Her subconscious clung to the idea, as he saw, that he was there. She snuggled to the warmth, muttering his name so softly he wouldn't have realized it if he wasn't right next to her.

Her eyebrow furrowed, her mind playing that last moment over and over again. The ship disappearing into white water, tentacles and the Leviathan's roar. Her eyes fluttered back and forth, as if plagued by the constant movement. He sighed, standing slowly and rolling her onto her hammock.

He wondered how many people thought she was okay. He wondered how many of the sailors above deck thought of how much she was hurting. 


	4. Chapter 4

**This one is short, but please please please review! I know I sound needy, but you guys made me almost expect reviews from the response to the last installment. I still love you, and thank you so much for reading.**

**-Han**

It was cold. Colder than Anna had thought it would be. She was huddled between Ragetti and Pintel, using their warmth along with Jack the monkey's to keep herself heated. She was laden with many blankets and had her arms wrapped firmly around herself to retain as much heat as possible.

Her blue lips were parted slightly, her teeth chattering and her hands rubbing her arms furiously. She felt her hair was heavy with frost and her skin was almost numb. Deciding she needed to move or something might fall off, she stood and began walking towards the helm.

The frozen wasteland around them was nothing if not beautiful. Giant icebergs floated calmly on the electric blue water, wind occasionally stirring up the snow that lay on top of them. Their ship glided softly through the water, beneath arches made of solid ice. Her eyes followed the ring of one as they passed beneath it, and she wondered what God made them.

She made it to the navigational charts, automatically bending over alongside Will and the man she now knew as Tai Hung. They were sliding their numb fingers across the ancient papyrus, moving each unstable ring to match another.

"Nothing here is set," she whispered to herself, while Will nodded along. He crossed another two rings to match up words.

"These can't be as accurate as modern charts," he said, looking at Tai Hung.

"No," the man answered, looking up at the two of them. "But it leads to more places."

Anna deftly moved Will's hand, replacing them with hers and sliding each portion to match up again, until new maps and words were formed. "Over the edge, over again," she read softly, as if reciting scripture. "Sunrise sets, flash of green." The words dripped from her mouth like an ancient epithet, and Will wondered if the writers of it had imagined it being read that way.

"Care to interpret, Captain Barbossa?" Will asked, turning to look behind him at the man at the helm. Barbossa's beard was frosted, his eyes fixed on their course. He briefly glanced at Gibbs, a smile on his scraggly and weathered face.

"Ever gaze upon the green flash, Master Gibbs?" Barbossa asked, making sure he had everyone's attention. Anna turned, watching them both carefully.

"I reckon I seen my fair share," he said solemnly, his angling for a story telling betrayed only in the fervor of his words, and the gleam in his eyes. "It happens on rare occasion. At the last glimpse of sunset, a green flash of light shoots up into the sky. Some go their whole lives without seeing it, some claim to have seen it that ain't. Some say..." He was cut off by a too eager Pintel.

"It signals when a soul comes back to this world, from the dead!" he said quickly, his excitement barely contained. Gibbs glared at him, the life of the story sucked away from him. "Sorry," Pintel squeaked.

"That's an odd color for the sky to turn; shouldn't it be white or something?" Anna asked, looking at Gibbs. The man gave her his rare fatherly look and Barbossa spoke before he could answer her.

"Trust me Miss Windsor, it's not getting' to the land o' the dead that's the problem," he turned the wheel sharply, ice and frost cracking off of it with the movement. "It's getting' back!"

Anna stood still as the ship passed between two walls of ice, a hollow sort of blue on both sides until they were consumed by the inevitable darkness. She seemed to hold her breath as the faux night enveloped them, and she could feel Will lay a comforting hand on her shoulder. She smiled at him, the blank stretch of her lips empty, but somehow meaningful to him. At least she tried.

Her eyes slipped closed again, and her mind unwillingly traveled to Jack. They were so close, so close to finishing this long horrible thing she'd been pushing through, each moment a test on her sanity. Each second a labor to her breathing, to her heart pumping blood throughout her body. She knew Will could see it, the way her eyes refused to light and the way she would stare at nothing for hours, her eyes lost in the bayou behind Tia's house. Sometimes, she would swear she heard his laugh, or could see his drunken walking, always from the corner of her eye.

And when she would turn, he would be gone.

Now they were going to reach him, and she could hardly hold herself inside. She breathed deeply, her body betraying her excitement, and her fear. What if he didn't want to see her again? Didn't want to be near her.

She shook herself, and swore she would stop thinking that way. It would drive her to insanity, this guessing and what if's. As if sensing her doubt, Will's grip on her shoulder tightened, and she leaned against him slightly, the darkness still around them.

"You shouldn't worry so much," Will whispered to her in the dark. "We're going to bring him back."

Anna laughed to herself, and cast a look to where she knew Will to be. "What do you bet, that by the time we get there, Jack will already be on his way to freedom?" she asked a smile on her lips. Will chuckled lowly, a slightly hollow sound. He still remembered what he saw on the deck of the Pearl, the way his fiancée's lips had crushed to his and the way he had automatically recuperated. The way she threw herself at him and the way he was thankful Anna hadn't seen it.

He wondered what would become of them when Jack was back with them, what would become of all of them. As their ship passed between the dark walls of ice, he hoped he could keep his sister close to him.


	5. Chapter 5

**Okay! So, I don't really know what to say. I mean, I'm a bit disappointed with the lack of response on this story, but I can't make you guys review. I will still keep posting though! and I just finished completely reworking that huge speech during the battle scene and now I like it a lot more. Love you all.**

**-Han**

Anna was glued to the side of the ship, watching it glide through a sea of stars, the reflection so perfect it pained her to see ripples. The sky held her in awe with its millions of glittering lights, the brightest before her. Her star.

She looked out, trying to memorize the position of each one and became aware again of Tia's presence.

"It's something special to see the stars," she whispered, catching herself before she reached out to skim the surface of them, and try to catch the starlight between her fingers.

"The light of souls, some say," Tia said with a nod. Anna turned to her and smiled.

"I've heard that the old Gods live up there," she said, her eyes casting upwards again. "Wouldn't that be amazing?"

"Amazing that they were ripped away from dere home by humans?" she asked, her voice harsher than Anna had ever heard. She turned, and faced the voodoo woman slowly, surprise in her eyes.

"No," she said, a calm rooting back into her as she looked into the angry brown eyes of the woman before her. "I think it's amazing that every star has a story, that burns forever and eternally in the sky. If the God is dead, then they can be remembered up there," she said softly. Her eyes rose and traced the sky once more. "Wouldn't it be amazing for them to be real, and for someone to answer a prayer? For us to have answers on the world?"

Tia looked at her for a long time, a time that made Anna think she'd said the wrong thing again. "Any answer come at a cost," she said finally, her eyes drifting to the floor.

Anna looked at her, her eyes seeming to memorize the woman. "What about for what we pray for?" she asked quietly, turning and looking to the sea.

"For what we want most, there is a price must be paid at the end," Tia answered strongly, to both Anna and a passing Will, who stopped to stare at her for a moment.

"Then we will pay it together," Anna assured Will, her eyes never leaving the crystal surface, as she noticed the ship gaining slight speed, gliding through the sea of stars ever faster.

Will snapped out of his trance and looked up to Barbossa, his brown eyes wide and frenzied. "Barbossa! Ahead!" he shouted, looking out to the bow, and the rapidly approaching _something._

"Aye, we're good and lost now!" Barbossa replied, his feathered hat fluttering in a wind.

"Lost?" Elizabeth shouted, her eyes wide in fury.

"For certain you have to be lost to find the places can't be found. Elseways, everyone would know where it was," Barbossa replied with a grin.

"That is infallible logic," Anna said loudly, looking back to Barbossa. "Did you learn it from Jack?" Barbossa scowled at her slightly, while Tia chuckled lowly to herself. Anna grinned, moving quickly up onto the rail of the ship and gripping the rigging, swinging her body to halfway lean over the water below as they gained speed.

"We're gainin' speed!" Gibbs shouted her assessment, rushing around the deck without much to do. Anna felt the wind swirl against her numb face and had to resist the urge to laugh loudly at the scrambled insanity only a foot below her.

"Aye," Barbossa shouted, a vigor in his voice that Anna almost didn't recognize. She thought a moment and decided that everyone sounded like that when they faced the next great adventure. Death, she thought, would be a big one.

"To stations! All hands, to stations! Hard to port, gather way!" Will shouted, rushing about and preparing to turn the ship hard to avoid that _something _they were approaching so fast.

"Nay!" Barbossa yelled, his hands gripping the wheel firmly, his eyes on the course ahead of them. "Let her run straight and true!"

Anna saw it a moment later, those huge waterfalls. The End. An exhilarated smile lit her face at the sight, rushing water pouring into nothing and everything and she wondered what the Gods thought when they made them.

"You've doomed us all!" Elizabeth shouted loudly, glaring at Barbossa. Anna tilted her body back over the ship, her hands still gripping the rigging.

"Calm down," she said annoyed, looking at the whole crew. "I hardly think it possible to enter the realm of the dead without first being so, I assume the best we can do is hold on and try to remember how to get back," she finished with a shrug.

"Aye, listen to the Princess!" Barbossa agreed, sending an almost teasing smirk her way. She rolled her eyes, a movement she found comfortable for the situation. Will and Elizabeth continued to try and stop them, while Tia muttered something fervently in French and Anna clung to her rigging and closed her eyes. The frenzy of movement around her put her at ease, and for the first time in a long time, she felt her soul at peace in the chaos.

Barbossa's laughter played in the background as Will shouted for them to hold on and she prepared to let go at the end, for fear of being caught in her netting and drowning. The thought almost made her laugh, drowning in the land of the dead.

The ship turned at the last minute, due to Will's efforts, and Anna gripped her netting all the harder as the back tipped precariously over the edge and fell away, a scream of fear and exhilaration ripping from her throat as their vessel tumbled into whatever lay below.

Xx

She didn't remember swimming. She didn't even remember the ship crashing into the water below, or grabbing Will's hand or making it to the shallows, or the sun coming out. She didn't remember anything.

But her clothes were drenched and her breathing labored as she sloshed through calf-deep water and stumbled onto dry sand. She looked up, her eyes scanning the hills of desert before them with barren hopelessness.

How could they find Jack in this?

"This truly is a Godforsaken place," Gibbs said heavily, his wet clothes dripping water onto the sand below him. The rolling hills of nothing before them were exactly as Anna had described hell. Tia looked at her knowingly as the woman moved forward, her boots sinking in wet sand.

"I don't see Jack, I don't see anyone," Elizabeth said hopelessly.

"He's here. He has to be," Anna said softly, watching the hills as if waiting for him.

Tia smiled at her, picking up a crab and stroking its shell softly. She laughed dryly to herself. "Witty Jack, is closer than you think," she said with a grin.

Anna looked up suddenly, just before the Pearl rose above the hills, as if riding a wave. The ship seemed to be riding thousands of white-shelled crabs, each pushing the vessel closer to its goal. The sails, black and intact were full and waving in the wind, seeming to laugh with Anna as a giggle of relief broke through her

She could just make out Jack standing perfectly on top the mast, wind whipping his long hair. Her heart fluttered in her chest and felt for once, whole, and like it would explode with excitement and feeling. She ran a hand through her hair and felt the smile on her face would split her down the center. She hadn't smiled in so long.

Every ounce of feeling she had for him rushed back into her system in full force, crushing her under the force of it. Every stolen moment or long conversation rushed through her memory until all she could think of was his smile and his odd gestures and the khol lining his eyes.

Every hopeless moment seemed to fade away into the recesses of her mind as her eyes landed on the man on the mast, hope returning to her soul. She unconsciously moved forward, before stopping herself and turning back to the group of stunned sailors.

"Ha!" Anna said loudly, turning towards them. "You all owe me money!"


	6. Chapter 6

**Yay! FEEDBACK! it lets me know if I'm doin' good. ^_^ to panda3, I have no way of knowing if you've read the first two stories, but it does say there that they met on the ship Will was saved from. and thank you so so so much for your reviews, they meant a lot! I love you!**

**-Han**

"Impossible," Tai Hung whispered, as the Black Pearl shifted from a sea of crabs to its home on the ocean, drifting easily into the water.

"Not impossible," Anna corrected. "_improbable_."

For some reason unknown to her, she did not rush to him when he walked assuredly on the sand, his drunken stumble lessened only slightly. She didn't throw herself at him, or profess her love. She stood back, and let him meet the others first.

"Jack!" Gibbs shouted, rushing to his Captain with all the loyalty of a first mate, a smile on his face.

"Mister Gibbs," Jack greeted tersely, in a voice more commanding than Anna had ever heard him use.

"Aye, Captain," Gibbs said, ready for anything, his back was straighter, his gut sticking out slightly. Anna stood back, behind Will. He sent her an exasperated look, but she only shook her head.

"I thought so. I expect you can account for your actions, then?" Jack asked, looking at Gibbs without really seeing him and feeling the wind on his face while being numb.

"Sir?" Gibbs asked carefully, his voice cautious.

"There has been a perpetual and virulent lack of discipline aboard my vessel! Why is that, sir?" Jack demanded, his eyes angry and deranged. Anna hid behind Will, confusion written on her face. Something was wrong with him, more wrong than usual.

Gibbs leaned forward, trying to keep his voice down and hoped to shed light on his Captain. "You're in Davy Jones' locker, Captain," he said softly, his eyes shifting over Jack's face as clarity arose and was swiftly crushed beneath the depths of his own madness.

"I know that," Jack said calmly, leaning forward slightly. "I know where I am," he assured, "And don't think I don't."

"Jack Sparrow," Barbossa spoke up, clearly tired of the banter. Jack turned to him, a slightly blank smile on his face. He began walking towards him, tilting and wobbling as he did. Anna watched as the coins in his hair caught the light and reflected in his dark eyes.

"Hector!" he said amiably, as if they were old friends. Anna tilted her head, remembering that Barbossa was once his first mate, so maybe they were. "It's been too long, hasn't it?" he asked happily.

"Aye, Isla de Muerta, remember? You shot me," Barbossa said with his usual sarcastic, menacing grin.

"No I didn't," Jack said with a slight chuckle, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. He turned away from Barbossa, whose smile had faded into blank confusion and anxiety. He began walking the line, stopping suddenly as he reached Tia Dalma. ". Ah, Tia Dalma, out and about, eh? You lend an agreeable sense of the macabre to any delirium," he said jovially, as Tia let a frozen, slightly frightened smile hang on her lips.

"He thinks he's hallucinating," Anna said softly to Will, who repeated her realization. She cringed when she heard Jack walking towards him, and wondered briefly why she was hiding in the first place.

"William, tell me something. Have you come because you need my help to rescue a certain distressing damsel? Or rather a damsel in distress? Either one," Jack asked, waving Will on to explain.

"No," Will said with a slightly smile.

"Then you wouldn't be here. So you can't be here. Q.E.D. you're not really here!" he finished in an angry shout. Anna sighed, and decided now was time to make her entrance.

"What about me, birdie?" she asked softly, stepping out from behind Will's broad shoulders. "All I've ever wanted is an adventure."

Jack stared at her for a moment, something like clarity rushing back into his eyes, as he traveled her slim form. She was still too skinny for his liking, her shoulders looked too bony. She stared back, hope rising as he took her in. Sanity flashed in his eyes, long enough to make her think he was back, but it was gone a moment later.

He smiled at her, that same blank smile she was coming to hate more than anything, and his eyes distanced until they were much too far for her to reach. "Well darling, you're the only one here I would invite to my garden party," he said, as if that explained everything.

"That's just lovely," she said softly, deciding it would be best to play along. "I shall not forget to wear my best dress."

Elizabeth huffed, walking closer to Jack and seeming to have had enough of the small talk, looked at him imploringly. "Jack, this is real, we're here."

Anna watched as something darker than clarity returned to Jack's eyes, more like realization, remembering. He back away slowly, his eyes trained on Elizabeth and seeming more scared than Anna had ever seen. Suddenly, she wondered what it was Elizabeth had had to say on the deck of the Pearl. She wondered what exactly it was the got Jack to stay behind.

He moved back to Gibbs, leaning in slightly. "The Locker, you say?" he asked, reality intruding on his delusions and making him crash back to Earth.

"Aye," Gibbs said softly, eyeing his Captain carefully.

"We've come to recue you," Elizabeth said, walking closer to him. Jack stepped back, a mocking smile on his lips and a fire in his eyes.

"Have you, now? That's very kind of you," he said in a deceptively calm voice. "But seeing as I possess a ship and you don't, it seems as though you're the ones in need of rescuing and I'm not sure as I'm in the mood."

"I see my ship," Barbossa said, pointing to the Pearl. "Right there."

Jack turned, exaggeratedly searching for a second vessel. "Can't spot it. Must be a tiny thing somewhere behind the Pearl." Anna smothered a giggle and watched as Will rolled his eyes and moved forward.

"Jack. Cutler Beckett has the heart of Davy Jones. He controls the Flying Dutchman," he said strongly, fury rising in his veins at only the thought.

"He's taking over the seas," Elizabeth put in, crowding closer to Jack. Anna stayed back, waiting her turn to speak with him.

"The song has already been sung. The Brethren Court is called," Tia said, watching Jack with calculating eyes.

Jack looked over the people invading his personal space and stepped back, his eyebrows raised. "Leave you people alone for a minute and look what's happened, everything's gone to pot," he said with a shake of his head.

Anna closed her eyes for a moment, thinking. He'd been gone for a month. Did he not know that? Did he not know how long she had been forced to suffer, to bottle it in and hide it?

"Aye, Jack. The world needs you back something fierce," Gibbs said truthfully and Anna thought that was something she definitely agreed with. She didn't think she could survive any longer in a world where Jack was not alive.

"And you need a crew," Will intercepted.

Jack paused a moment, walking away until he could turn back and glare at the people before him. "Why should I sail with any of you? Four of you have tried to kill me in the past, one of you succeeded," he said, looking directly at Elizabeth.

Anna sucked in a breath, her eyes wide and blank. Elizabeth started to say something, but Jack cut her off with a dark chuckle.

"Oh, she's not told you? You'll have loads to talk about while you're here," he said menacingly. He turned, ready to say something to Gibbs, but was cut off.

Anna launched herself at Elizabeth, the spell of numbness broken as a scream of rage tore from her throat. "You black hearted, vile, _bitch!" _she shouted, launching her fists wherever they could reach. Tears burned from her eyes but she didn't care. All that mattered was making Elizabeth hurt as much as she did on the inside. All that mattered was making Elizabeth feel the pain she had when she saw the Pearl consumed by the sea. "_How could you? I trusted you!" _The words were spewing from her lips as she drove her fists harder in to the woman below her, landing them in her ribs and her stomach.

She felt Will pull her away, slowly, gentle tugs bringing her back until she gripped his shirt until her knuckles were white and her body was shaking. She sucked in a deep, labored breath and looked up, meeting his warm brown eyes with fierce stormy ones of her own.

Jack watched her attack the woman, watched her eyes begin to drip, watched each punch rain down and crush Elizabeth. He watched her scream and shake and he watched her be pulled away by Will and use him as her crutch. He wondered why it made everything in him hurt to see it. He wondered why his crew had lowered their heads in something like mourning as she poured her emotions into her shouts.

He wondered why even Barbossa looked to feel sympathy.


	7. Chapter 7

**Awww, I feel loved! Panda3, I bet you understand what's going on now ;), and thank you so much for reading and reviewing! I love all of you! Don't forget to review.**

**-Han**

When she stood, finally, and glared at Elizabeth so scathingly, Jack felt he had to approach her.

"Love?" he asked softly. She turned, her eyes wide and red around the edges. She sniffed, and seemed to decide that propriety could hang, as she crushed her body to his and hugged him as tightly as she could. He chuckled to himself, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. "Nice to know I was missed."

"If you ever leave me again I will gut you and hang you out by the figurehead of the Pearl and watch the sharks devour you," she said calmly against his chest. He stiffened for a moment, and leaned back slightly.

"Sometimes I forget how much you enjoy violence," he mumbled to himself. She looked up, wiping her eyes, and laughed lightly.

"That is not recommended," she said with a small grin. She could already feel her heart beating again, bringing her back from the edges of her own mind and sewing herself back together. She was quiet for a moment, looking at him slowly. "I kept my promise," she said softly. He nodded, his gold-capped teeth sparkling in the sun.

"Aye," he said with a nod. "And I thank ye for it."

She nodded, her cheeks dimpling as she smiled. She disengaged herself from him, stepping back and shifting her gaze to the horizon. "You're welcome, birdie."

Business seemed to snap back into place and Jack turned to Tia Dalma. "As for you…" he said, looking the woman over.

"Now, don't tell me you didn't enjoy it, at the time," she said with a knowing look. Anna looked back and forth between them, forcing herself to squash the rising jealousy before it could overtake her.

Jack smiled at the memory, a calm look on his face. "All right, fair enough, you're in." He walked the line and moved to Ragetti. "Don't need you, you scare me." This seemed to be directed at both him and Pintel, as he gave them both looks of distrust.

"I like them, they're going," Anna spoke up, moving to stand beside Jack. He sent her a long look, while Ragetti and Pintel nodded in agreement. He shrugged, nodding to them slightly, before moving on to Gibbs.

"Gibbs, you can come. Marty. Cotton. Cotton's parrot, I'm a little iffy, but at least I'll have someone to talk to," he said with a passing glance. Anna smothered her laugh with her hand and nodded to Will.

"Will's going," she said with the air of someone who knew they would be getting their way in the end. Jack shrugged again, as if he could care less about Will and moved on to Tai Hung.

"And who are you?" he asked, confusion evident on his face as he examined the short man before him.

"Tai Huang. These are my men," he said, tilting his head back towards the other Asian sailors. Dirty faces looked from the clearly insane Captain to the barren wasteland around them and seemed to choose insanity over the Hell around them.

"And where do your allegiances lie?" Jack questioned.

"With the highest bidder," he responded.

"I have a ship," Jack said with an almost pompous kind of snort.

"That makes you the highest bidder," Tai Hung said with a smile.

"Good man. Weigh anchor, all hands, prepare to make sail," Jack shouted, bringing up his compass and gazing at the aged mechanism as it swirled wildly, unsure where to stop. Anna gazed at it in wonder as if refused to still, the black needle twirling in her mind until she wasn't sure which was up anymore.

"Jack, which way ya goin', Jack?" Barbossa questioned as he fingered his charts with a decaying grin. Elizabeth stood behind him, her face hard and bruising along her jaw. Anna held no shame in being proud of her marks.

Xx

The deck was exactly how she remembered it, no fires or splinters or drops of blood to mark the stained black wood. She walked along it easily, her eyes memorizing every line and smiling as her fingers skimmed the rail. She tried not to think of the way it was blasted away by falling debris or the way it had cracked under the force of the Kraken's tentacles.

Her head jerked up as she heard Barbossa giving orders, stomping along the deck and shouting at all within range of his voice. "Trim that sail!"

Jack glared, shouting louder, "Trim that sail!" This was his ship, he thought with a fire in his heart. He was the Captain.

Barbossa ignored him, spouting off another set of orders. "Slack windward brace and sheets!"

"Slack windward brace and sheets!"

"Haul that pallet line!"

"Haul that pallet line!"

Anna sighed, rubbing her temples lightly to alleviate the tension. She looked up, watching them turn on each other, getting closer and closer as they asked what the other was doing. She cracked her neck, deciding it was time for this to be over, and walked casually to Barbossa.

"No what _are _y-" he was cut off as Anna stepped quickly in front of him and grabbed him by the ends of his scraggly beard. She pulled him roughly down to her level as Jack watched with interest.

"Let me make myself _perfectly _clear, Hector," she hissed, her eyes narrowed and a stormy grey. Barbossa remained silent, watching her as she pulled again on his beard. "This is Jack's ship, and as such you should be infinitely grateful neither of us has decided to throw you over. But, as I haven't, this is the way this is going to work: you will do as Jack says, and maybe even more importantly, what _I _say. Do not assume I am above murder in the darkest of ways. I know what it is to suffer, Hector, and I am quite clear on how to inflict it on another," she finished in a deadly whisper. Jack raised an eyebrow at her as she released Barbossa and stepped away, her hair swirling almost ominously around her shoulders.

"That was one of the most pirate-y things I've ever had the pleasure of hearing you say," he said calmly as Barbossa rubbed his chin and walked towards the helm.

"I've changed a lot since you've been gone," she said softly, looking up at him.

"Is that a good thing?" he asked, looking out over the endless horizon before them.

"No," she said plainly. "But I have no doubt I'll be back to normal soon."

Jack snorted, casting a glance back at her. "Because you were normal to begin with."

"Shut it," she said with a grin, swatting him lightly on the arm. Jack laughed, the sound carrying across the deck as she joined in. Cotton sent an encouraging look her way, one she smiled at in-between fits of giggles. She racked a hand through her hair, and watched as Jack followed the movement.

"Where'd the ring run off to?" Jack asked, gesturing to her empty left hand. She smiled, looking proud of herself as she turned fully to him.

"I gave it to Mr. Mercer in Singapore, and told him I was renouncing my crown."

Jack smiled, laughing to himself as he patted her shoulder lightly. "It's about bloody time," he said with a grin. She shrugged, looking out at the vast ocean.

"I hadn't had the opportunity before," she said. He nodded, a smile on his face.

"You know what this means, don't you?"

"I'm free," she said with a soft smile. Jack nodded, happier for her than he ever thought he would be. Happier than he thought he should be.

She wondered if Jack would answer the call of the court, but was too afraid to ask him. She wondered if he would protect their freedom, if he would chase it with her by eliminating the threat. She wondered if he would stand by her.

"That you are," he said, looking out to the horizon and the sea and wondering if she had fully grasped what that meant. What it meant to know no bounds and to live however you wanted. He wondered if she knew, yet, what it was to be free. He decided, with a wry grin, he would show her, when the time came. He would show her adventures the world over, treasure, and excitement. He would show her his world.


	8. Chapter 8

**Hey guys! Please review and to Singerdreamer42, I really hope I answer (hopefully) all of your questions soon! Love you all!**

**-Han**

The sky was so dark; Anna wondered if you could drown in it as you would the water. She was leaning against the rail, her head tilted up and watching the fabric of night wrap around them and make shadows stretch and bend into other shadows.

Jack was leading the ship through calm waters with an assured hand and she was trying not to think about what it would take for them to reach their own world. Her head hurt when she wondered if this meant she was technically dead. She didn't feel dead.

She stopped herself, unwilling to be lost in the fields of logic that weren't really logic. Sometimes she wondered if Jack's way of thinking was bleeding into hers until she saw the world sideways. Or maybe, maybe she always thought like that.

She jumped at the sound of a cannon ball dropping to the deck and rolling away. She braced her hands on the rail and looked over the edge of the ship, entranced by the way the bodies floated in a direction together, guiding themselves.

She walked towards a stunned Ragetti and Pintel and listened as Tia spoke harshly to someone who couldn't really hear her.

"They should be in the care of Davy Jones. That was the duty him was charged with by the goddess Calypso. To ferry them who dies at sea to the other side. And every ten years he could come ashore to be with she who love him, truly. But the man has become a monster," Tia said, sadness etched into her face until Anna couldn't stop herself from speaking.

"You're her," she said softly. "You're the woman he loved, and you loved him too." She paused, Tia's face morphing into something like apprehension and discomfort as she finished. "But, when he came for you, you weren't there, were you?" she asked, remembering that sad locket in her hut, now around Tia's neck. She remembered the tune that made hearts break, and a broken one shatter completely.

Tia looked like she might say something. Deny it or confirm it or rebuke it with some undeniable truth. But Ragetti moved forward and said softly and almost sadly, "Now there's boats comin'."

Anna turned and watched as longboats bobbed in the water, two twin girls clutching their lantern, their faces pale and sickly. Death had not eradicated the effects of their pain. It had  
>given peace to their faces, haunting and blank.<p>

Her hand reached out to still Gibbs as he loaded a gun. "They are no threat to us," she whispered. "They look as if we are not real to them."

"We are but ghosts to them," Tia confirmed, standing closer to her. Anna could smell the seawater on her dirty lace.

"Best to just let them be," Barbossa added.

"I wonder if they would tell you their stories, if you asked them," Anna whispered to herself as men and women and children passed, their lanterns illuminating the sea around them, like flickers of hope in the dark.

She felt Jack move up beside her, and slip an arm around her shoulder and she wondered how he had crossed into this realm.

Elizabeth moved beside her, a kind of desperate grin on her face. "It's my father, we've made it back. Father here, look here!"

Anna lowered her head, turning away and feeling almost guilty for the bruises that lined Elizabeth's body. The blonde woman was smiling and her eyes were wide and her body was bent in half over the rail. Anna turned away, wiping at still dry eyes just in case and letting someone else do the talking. Governor Swann had been a good man. Proper with a kind smile and she didn't think he would have treated her like her real father had if she had stayed with him. Guilt settled in her chest when she realized she hadn't, not only because of Will, but because she hadn't trusted the future Governor. She wished she had not let her childish ignorance blind her from the sight of a good heart.

"Elizabeth," Jack said softly, his face so sober it reminded Anna of the times they discussed stars on a beach. "We're not back."

Anna refused to watch clarity seep into the woman's eyes or the way her hand half-rose to her mouth and it covered a blue-ish bruise for just a moment before denial reigned true and that desperation was back. Anna refused to watch this. Jack flicked his eyes between both women as if wondering who to comfort and he invariably chose not to comfort anyone because he was a pirate and pirates did not know the meaning of the word.

"Father!" Elizabeth called out, leaning precariously over the railing, her eyes searching for a sign of life. The pale man in his longboat looked up, a blank smile gracing his lined face as if she were nothing more than the wind her voice had been carried on.

"Elizabeth," he said after a moment, as if surprised that she wasn't just the air he thought her to be. "Are you dead?" he asked as if commenting on the night sky. Anna flicked her gaze up for a moment and prayed on the first star she saw. Prayed for this man to find peace.

"No, no," Elizabeth said breathily, quickly, as if she could not spit out the words fast enough and she still looked to be hoping for something. Anything.

"I think I am," Governor Swann said grimly, but with a kind of acceptance that Anna admired. He gave his daughter a slightly more genuine smile, reminding the near-hysterical woman of a time when he would smile like that after one of her nightmares, telling her it was all just a dream. Elizabeth wished this was just a dream more than she wished for anything else.

"No! No you can't be!" she shouted, begged, needing her father to tell her not to worry. Needing him to say it was nothing to worry her pretty little head about and to bring her a new dress that would inevitably end up choking her but she didn't mind anymore.

"There was this chest, you see. And a heart. At the time it seemed so important," Swann said slowly, shaking his head as if scolding himself for his own ignorance. Anna's head lowered, her eyes cast down and away from the man she wished she could have saved.

"Come aboard!" Elizabeth shouted suddenly, her body in a frenzy of fire and denial and Jack was watching her with something like pity.

"I learned that if you stab the heart, yours must take its place. Sail the seas for eternity. The Dutchman must always have a captain. Silly thing to die for," he said as if she hadn't spoken. Anna looked up then, at Jack, her eyes wide. He looked back at her, attempting to be reassuring as she shook her head as if she was reading his mind and she knew he was thinking about it.

"Someone cast a line!" Elizabeth shouted, grabbing a line from Marty and throwing it to her father. He made no move to get it, and it lay uselessly in his lap. Anna heard Tia lean over to Will.

"A touch of destiny," the woman whispered softly as Elizabeth begged her father to take the line. Anna leaned towards Jack until he laid an arm across her shoulders. She hid her face away.

"Elizabeth, I'm so proud of you," Swann said quietly, his voice wavering slightly. Elizabeth shook her head in denial, the pain ripping through her chest until all that was left was hurt and fear.

"Father, the line, take the line!" she pleaded running towards the stern of the ship, a scream rising in her sword.

"She must not leave the ship!" Tia shouted quickly, stepping forward slightly. Will rushed to her, gripping her around the waist as she thrashed against him. He whispered her name as she screamed for her father and Anna hid herself away.

"I'll give your love to your mother, shall I?" Swann said with a small smile. Anna sighed against Jack, collecting herself enough to step back slightly and reach Tia's eyes.

"Is there a way?" she asked softly. Tia shook her head slowly, her eyes sad but firm.

"Him at peace," she said softly and the sound carried across the night and the other boats and each passing soul and Elizabeth's screams and Anna wished she could do something.

But Swann's boat drifted on to the end and the darkness consumed his lantern.


	9. Chapter 9

**Sorry I didn't upload yesterday, I was really busy! Okay, so if I get…six (I think that's not too high) reviews I will upload tomorrow. I love you guys! (and to Ang, HIIII, I miss your reviews! I'm glad you're back!)**

**-Han**

The sun was hot, hotter than Anna had ever remembered in her long years in the Caribbean. The kind of dry heat that offered no reprieve from thirst and no answer to the world either. She lounged next to Jack as he turned the maps, her eyes lazily following the crew move and moan about their thirst. She had made no mention of her own, though the dry scratching of her throat made her uncomfortable.

"If we cannot escape these doldrums by nightfall, I fear we will sail trackless seas, doomed to roam the reach between worlds...forever," Tia said slowly, her breathing sounding raspy to Anna's ears. She turned away from them, looking back at the maps and Jack, who made no move that he knew she was there.

She traced her fingers over the map, lining up the words again as Gibbs and Will leaned over to read.

"There's no sense to it," Gibbs grunted after a moment, his eyes scanning the interlocking maps and rocky, uneven coast lines.

"And the green flash happens at sunset, not sunrise," Will added, frowning down at the map. Anna flicked her eyes across them, trying to take in all the possibilities at once.

"'Over_ the Edge'_…it's drivin' me over the bloomin' edge, sunrises don't set," Gibbs grunted, stalking off a moment later in search of rum or water but preferably rum. Will followed soon after, his eyes on the helm and the horizon.

Anna slid down the Jack's level, her fingers reaching with his to turn the center ring again, his dirty ringed fingers so different from her slim, clean, and bare ones. She blinked, her head tilting to the side slightly. "'Up_ is Down,'"_ she read slowly, as if tasting the words on her tongue. Jack frowned, not seeming to have noticed she was the one that spoke them.

"Well that's just maddeningly unhelpful," he supplied with something close to frustration leaking into his voice. "Why are these things never clear?" Anna sighed, leaning back and looking over the man. His hat and coat were somewhere in his cabin and his shirt was opened deep to his chest and she could trace the tan skin with her eyes. She traveled it lazily, the heat making it hard for her to think and she didn't even realize Jack was talking to himself.

Her eyes rested on his sparrow tattoo and before she knew what she was doing, she was tracing it lightly with the tips of her fingers. Jack had taken to looking at her, whatever conversation he'd been having seeming to be forgotten for the moment as she looked back up at him.

"Birdie, you never told me," she started slowly. "Is this tattoo of a sunrise or a sunset?" she asked, looking back at him. She saw the moment the genius in him shot back, the light blooming across his eyes and shock settling between them. He brushed her hand off lightly.

"Not sunset- _sundown!"_ he said quickly, spinning the ship in the center upside down and Anna understood when he stood up and she followed. "…and rise…_up._"

She smiled at him, something childlike and full of adventure as she tilted her head towards the port side, an invitation. Jack took her arm and rushed with her to the edge.

"Oh what is that? Oh what _is _that? What do you think?" Jack asked quickly, fingering his chin as he attracted attention.

"Where?" Elizabeth asked.

"It's gone to that side! How did it _do _that?" Anna said quickly, rushing with Jack and Elizabeth to the other side. They were starting to gather a crowd and every step they took made the ship creak and move with them and Anna was laughing and it felt good. Jack would never admit that he liked the sound as it floated between stomping boots and the sound of bodies hitting the rail. Then again, there were quite a few things he would never admit about her.

He heard Barbossa shout to let loose the cargo and he felt his footing slip but kept running, each time his boot connected with the ship he felt more in control, more powerful. He wasn't sure how Anna managed to keep up with him, but their arms were still linked and he wasn't pulling her. She was right next to him, still giggling with the wind blowing her hair behind her and her hands slapping onto the rail to hold on in time with his, their arms still cross.

One more time and their footing disappeared and he could feel her arm flex to keep herself up, the wiry scars on her arm brushing against him. He gave her a significant look, and she nodded, her fingers tightening around the railing and her mouth opening and gulping in air dramatically for his sake.

"Now up…" Jack muttered, gritting his teeth with exertion. "Is down."

The water came up as the ship went down and for a moment Jack relived his last moments on the Pearl, water and the leviathan and he kept his eyes open in case it was behind him. His dread locks floated around him and he looked to Anna and saw her skin looked paler than usual, and her hair looked black and silken around her face and he thought she looked like a siren of some kind.

Anna held her breath, watching the water around her and the occasional person fall and drift away to away where there was no up or down. She hoped it was no one she knew, and Will was on her other side, casting her and Elizabeth side-long looks. She was glad she hadn't had to interact with the woman, when all she wanted to do was hit her again and again until her knuckles bled and her heart was sated.

She and Jack's arms were still entwined, his strong arm flexing against hers as he held on, his eyes open to the world around them. She fought against the urge in her mind to breath in, her body seeming to beg of its own accord as the seconds ticked by and her blood seemed to thicken. Her fingers went numb, but she held on, the strength of Jack supporting her as she clung to the rail, her eyes closing shut.

When he thought his lungs would fall off, the burn spreading from his chest to his fingers and his brain shutting down nerve by nerve, he felt the pulling. Anna clung to the railing for life as the water moved around them or maybe it was the ship moving, but they moved up and the water was gone. Anna coughed, spitting water onto the deck of the Pearl and hacking for everything she was worth, her body rolling in on itself. She felt Jack come to her, his dreadlocks dripping on her skin and soaking it even further.

Her eyes opened, the blue almost green in depth and the smile taking him back slightly as she sat up slowly, her face only inches from his.

"Can we do that again?" 


	10. Chapter 10

**Sorry if this isn't long enough for you guys, but i really really really wanted to upload today! I didn't end up getting six reviews until i'd fallen asleep, so i'm sorry for that. Today we'll go with five, and i'll upload tomorrow. Thank you so so much for your continued support, it means so much to me. Seriously, you have no idea.**

**-Han**

"Blessed sweet westerlilies, we're back!" Gibbs shouted, staring at the sunrise with a grin of triumph.

Jack leaned down further, his face all the closer to Anna's and they froze for a moment and she thought he might kiss her, like he had on the battlements of Port Royal. But he only slowly extended his arm to help her up, his eyes dark and bright at the same time and she took it just as slowly. Her hand tightened around his as she stood and she imagined leaning forward the extra few inches and crushed her mouth to his but she was too weak. She looked down, stepping away from him slightly as he looked at her with that unreadable gleam in his eyes that made her scared.

She could hear Elizabeth talking in the background, pointing at the rising sun and the way it cast a pale light on everything and made Anna's eyes seem bluer. She watched the crew sigh almost as one in relief and paused when the mood turned. Barbossa turned, pointing his guns at Jack, the barrels seeming to call him back to the land of the dead and Jack wasn't having it. Will and Elizabeth both pulled their guns as Jack raised his own and everyone was pointing at someone.

Except Anna, who rolled her eyes and stayed behind Jack, leaning against the railing and waiting to see what would happen. Everyone laughed suddenly, looking almost ashamed of themselves for even trying to threaten another one of them.

"All right then!" Barbossa shouted, and everyone was back in position, smiles erased and backs straight and faces hardened and firm. "The Brethren Court's a-gatherin' at Shipwreck Cove. And Jack, you and I are a-goin', and there'll be no arguin' that point," the Captain said to the other Captain, both pistols pointing at him. Jack returned the sentiment, a coy grin on his angularly carved face.

"I is arguin' the point. If there's pirates a-gatherin', I'm pointing my ship the other way," he said factually, as if it were simple and complete and just a fact of life. Anna stared at the back of his head, trying not to be disappointed in him.

Elizabeth turned, pointing both guns at him and Jack smoothly swung his arm in an arch for one gun to face her. "The pirates are gathering to fight Beckett, and you're a pirate," she said with conviction, the bruise along her jaw doing nothing to hamper her words.

"Fight or not," Will added, pointing both guns at him and watching as Jack moved to aim at Will. "You're not running Jack."

"If we don't stand together, they'll hunt us down one by one, till there be none left, but you," Barbossa said mockingly, a fake smile plastered onto his decaying teeth.

"I quite like the sound of that. Captain Jack Sparrow, the last pirate," Jack said with a smile and Anna tried not to think about how much it hurt to hear him say it. She had to pretend she knew he meant that he wanted to live forever. She had to pretend he remembered she would be with him.

"Aye, and you'll be fightin' Jones alone. And how does that figure into your plan?" Barbossa asked, his eyes flicking behind him to Anna for only a moment. A moment long enough to make her feel alone and sad and fragile. She shook herself, her shoulders stiffening as Jack spoke again.

"I'm still working on that. But I'll not be going back to the locker, mate, count on that," he said darkly, his pistol rising, his finger about to pull down.

"Wet powder," Anna said before he could pull it, already walking towards the helm and the maps. She heard the resounding clicking behind her, of all of them trying to shoot. Her eyes rolled, almost of their own accord and she plopped herself down on a barrel, flicking through maps and waiting for the others to arrive.

Will made it there first, picking out a large, detailed map and searching for an appropriate island. He sent her a quick look of kindness, a soft smile and a gentle touch to her shoulder. She smiled back, looking over the map with him and pointing out the closest island. The others crowded around them and Jack stood behind Anna, placing a ringed hand on her shoulder and she would never admit it felt more than amazing on her skin.

"There's a freshwater spring on this island. We can resupply there, and get back to shooting each other later," Will said logically, his voice like a man of high propriety and Anna was surprised at the cool charm to it.

"You can lead the shore party, and I'll stay with my ship," Jack said with a smile and Anna couldn't help but grin to herself. She didn't think he would ever allow himself to be separated from his ship again.

"I'll not be leaving my ship in your command," Barbossa said lightly. Anna stood again, turning towards him with a biting glare until he nervously stepped back and away from her. Her fingers itched to yank at his scraggly beard again and bring him down to her level.

"Why don't you both go ashore and leave the ship in my command...temporarily," Will said with a smile that made Anna unnerved. She nodded slowly, her eyes fixed on Will's, the warm brown telling her to trust him.

Xx

An hour later they were tromping up white beach, the image of a creature in front of them. Anna could feel jack stiffen and responded in turn, her eyes fixed on the dead Leviathan down the beach. They walked closer almost against their wills, each step taxing his strength and taxing her emotions.

The grey body of the Kraken lay broken on the sand, the open eye staring at nothing, white water swirling around tentacles that once gripped at ships and sailors and dragged them to hell. Anna stopped before it, watching Pintel and Ragetti run forward, climbing atop it and found the eye of the monster and couldn't stop staring. It was sad, in a way.

Another part of her felt victory and retribution and it took every ounce of self-control not to break before the monster that had already broken. Jack was closer to it, watching himself be reflected in the yellow-green eye of the monster that had killed him, his own eyes sad and soft. Anna moved to stand beside him, her hand slipping into his, his rings pushing into her skin with the force her gripped her back.

For a moment they held to each other, memories of white foam and crushing darkness and splintering black wood playing in their minds and Anna remembered the moment she realized she loved him and Jack remembered the way his compass pointed back to the ship. To her.

The moment seemed to carry on for a lifetime and there was so much she could have said. She could have told him how much she had missed him, how much it hurt to see him dragged away from her and life, how much she loved him. But they were both silent and maybe they shouldn't have been.

Barbossa walked beside Jack, facing the beast with calm, undisturbed eyes when the two next to him stared down the monster with hollow, haunted eyes.

"Still thinking of running, Jack? Think you can outrun the world? You know, the problem with being the last of anything, is by and by, there be none left at all," Barbossa said calmly, quietly, softly. Anna felt like an outsider, staring in on two men who knew freedom better than her. Who knew life, so much better than her.

"Sometimes, things come back, mate. We're living proof, you and me," Jack said, his gaze flickering to Barbossa and back to the creature in seconds, images of life and death swirling behind his eyes.

"Aye, but that's a gamble of long odds, ain't it? There's never a guarantee of coming back, but passing on, that's dead certain," Barbossa replied and Anna thought there was wisdom in that. There was wisdom in piracy and life and in death, no matter how much the concept scared her. How much she feared Death taking another person she loved.

"Summoning the Brethren Court, then, is it?" Jack said after a moment of silence and Anna felt the somber moment had passed and she could participate again.

"It's our only hope, lad," Barbossa said and Anna thought he sounded like a father and the idea made her wonder about what the two were like before mutiny and cursed treasure.

"That's a sad commentary in and of itself," Jack said sullenly, like a small boy. Like the small boy he really was, on the inside. A boy who knew freedom, but not consequences.

"The world used to be a bigger place," Barbossa said, a true sadness in his voice and his eyes and Anna closed her eyes as a soft breeze floated around her.

"The world's still the same," Jack started, his eyes drifting to the woman beside him, who finished for him as if it was rehearsed.

"There's just less in it," she whispered, her voice carried on the wind and sounding sad.

Xx

The spring didn't look right to Anna, a darkened color that looked sick and putrid. She stood next to Jack again, their hearts beating in time, though neither knew it. She watched Barbossa walk forward and lean down to the body floating in the water.

Face down , the man looked too pale, tattoo's along his back and she thought they looked Asian. She turned to Jack and whispered this to him as Barbossa turned the man over, a wooden spike driven into his mouth and she wondered if it had been opened in a scream. Jack looked back at her, his eyes wide with curiosity.

"He was in Singapore," she said almost acidly, her face furrowing in concentration and anger as it rose. "How did they know where we would be?" she asked herself, turning suddenly and swearing so loudly Jack gave her a side-long glance.

"Oy!" Ragetti shouted from his position as lookout. "We got comp'ny!" he shouted and Jack followed Anna's line of vision and swore himself.

Sao Feng had found them.


	11. Chapter 11

**This is definitely my longest chapter. I hope this doesn't confuse you guys, because the scenes switch so often, but I did the best I could. Please pleaseplease review!**

**-Han**

Upset didn't amount to much when she was grabbed the moment she stepped onto the Pearl, dirty hands wrapping around her wrists and dragging her away from Jack and the rest of the crew, pushed near to the front of the crowd and she felt Jack hide behind her. Upset didn't cover it.

Fury was pumping through her veins and she could feel the blotchy redness of an anger-riddled blush creeping up her face. Her eyes were narrowed on the pirates around her, her fists clenched at her sides. They approached her with chains, sick grins plastered on their faces. She raised a brow, her right hand drifting to her sword. She felt Jack's hand on hers, restraining her with light touches.

Sao Feng emerged from the crowd, his head held high and his dirty fingers twisting a red piece of cloth. His black eyes danced across the gathered crowd and landed for a brief moment on her, a sneer curving his lips as he stepped forward.

"Sao Feng, you showing up here, 'tis truly a remarkable coincidence," Barbossa said sarcastically, his fingers brushing over his sword gently. Sao Feng ignored him, his eyes fixed on a spot behind Anna. She turned slightly, looking at Jack almost sympathetically and tilting her head to push him on.

"Jack Sparrow," Sao Feng said loudly, causing Jack to sneak from behind her back and stand up. "You paid me great insult, once."

"That doesn't sound like me," Jack said quickly. Sao Feng lashed out, punching him swiftly in the nose with a resounding crack. Jack's head snapped back, his hands flying to his nose and resetting it with a crunch that caused Anna to wince. "Shall we call it square, then?" he asked lightly.

"Jack, you really ought to remember to be kind to people," Anna said, in what she hoped was light voice. Anger was still broiling beneath the surface. Thoughts buzzed in her head and she wasn't ready to admit that she had been betrayed. There was no other way for Sao Feng to have found them, but she didn't want to think about it. Another round of men approached her with chains.

"Release them," Will said, pushing his way through the pirates. He indicated Elizabeth and Anna and she couldn't help but smile, because this time he'd remembered her. "They're not part of our bargain."

"Will?" She asked breathless, air seeming to desert her lungs and her heart was beating too fast. "Please tell me you're joking," she begged.

"You heard Captain Turner, release them," Sao Feng said with a slight laugh.

"Captain Turner," Jack and Anna said together, incredulous sarcasm mixed with hurt and betrayal.

"Aye, the perfidious rotter led a mutiny against us," Gibbs spoke up with a frown. Anna shook her head, stepping towards him.

"Will, tell them they're wrong," she whispered, her eyes huge and wounded on his. "You promised, Will."

He turned his face away, avoiding her eyes and Elizabeth's almost cold stare. "I need the Pearl to free my father. That's the only reason I came on this voyage."

"The only reason?" Anna asked, remembering the way he held her when she broke, the way she almost ended it in a bayou by Tia's house. He looked at her evenly, his eyes growing deeper and she wished she could bring herself to hug him to her body like he was a little boy.

"Aside from that," he said, and he knew only she and Tia would understand. She nodded, sniffing slightly, her head shaking as if to brush off the emotions.

"Why didn't you tell me you were planning this?" Elizabeth asked, hurt coloring her tone and Anna sent her a glare. After what she had done, the lies she had told, she didn't deserve to be hurt.

"It was my burden to bear," Will replied and Anna thought he felt the same, as the phrase looked to carry a weight the rest of them couldn't fathom as it settled on Elizabeth's shoulders.

"He needs the Pearl! Captain Turner needs the Pearl! And you felt guilty." Jack said pointing at Elizabeth. "And you and your Brethren Court!" he said to Barbossa. "Did no one come to save me just because they missed me?" Jack asked, something like hurt behind his eyes.

"Jack, I missed you terribly," Anna said as if he was insane, her eyes soft on his like they were not on anyone else and he didn't know that. They were just friends. Just friends.

A small group raised their hands as she spoke and Jack's look told her he appreciated it. "I'm standin' over there with them," he said lightly, preparing to walk to his crew.

"I'm sorry, Jack, but there's an old friend who wants to see you first," Sao Feng said with a gleam in his eyes.

"I don't think I can survive any more visits from old friends," Jack said with a frown.

"Well, here's your chance to find out," Sao Feng said, pointing to the _Endeavor _as it approached. Anna swore to herself, somehow knowing who was on that ship.

"Can we just shoot the small man and get this all over with?" she asked the sky, drawing a shaky grin from Jack.

Xx

"It's curious," Beckett said, his back to Jack as he was pushed unceremoniously into the cabin. ": It's curious. Your friends appear to be quite desperate, Jack. Perhaps they no longer believe that a gathering of squabbling pirates is enough to take down the Flying Dutchman. And so despair leads to betrayal. But you and I are no strangers to betrayal, are we, Jack?"

Jack rummaged through the array of small silver chests along the bureau. His brow furrowed, expression of interest dropping as he thought about his past. Betrayal? Is that what the EITC was calling it these days? To stand up for one's morals?

He sighed to himself, trying to eradicate his past. It was easier to believe his own stories, easier to believe the front he put up.

"It isn't here, Jack," Beckett said, that familiarity digging into Jack's mind.

"What? What isn't?" Jack asked, turning back around and glancing back to be sure his fingers didn't smudge the silver.

"The heart of Davy Jones. It's safely aboard the Dutchman, and so unavailable for use as leverage to satisfy your debt to the good Captain," Beckett said in that same calm, unaffected voice that made him want to shoot something. Where was the monkey when he needed it?

"By my reckoning, that account has been settled," Jack said with a slight grin, hollow around the edges and visions of the Leviathan's teeth behind his eyes.

"By your death?" Beckett asked as if it were something simple and easy and Jack could still feel the teeth ripping into his skin and the acid burning away his bones. "Yet here you are."

"Close your eyes and pretend it's all a bad dream, s'how I get by," Jack said with a smile and Beckett would never know how true that was. Sometimes it was like a dream, and ocean spray never really touched him. When blank smiles were perceived as suave by all but his best friend and she was still just his friend. Just a friend.

"And if Davy Jones was to learn of your survival?" Beckett asked, the gleam of business in his eyes and Jack remembered there had always been a reason he lived by freedom.

Xx

Mercer walked assuredly across the deck of the Pearl, his steps echoing, even with the noise and his soldiers filed behind him. Sao Feng reached him, something like outrage carved into his scared face.

"My men will be crew enough," the pirate lord insisted, his fingers gripping Mercer's coat.

"Company ship, company crew," Mercer said with a grim smile that Anna thought was empty. Will burst forward, outrage and betrayal written across his face and Anna hated the fact that she took satisfaction in that.

"You agreed, the Black Pearl was to be mine," he said to Sao Feng.

"And so it was," the lord agreed with a smile. His men approached and swiftly punched Will in the stomach, causing him to bend at the hip and he was dragged away. Anna glared at the men before her, men who carried chains.

Xx

"Perhaps you would consider an alternate arrangement, one that requires absolutely nothing from you but information," Beckett said, pouring two shots of liquor, offering one to Jack. The room around them made Jack uncomfortable, as if his presence would make it smudged with dirt and become something impure. Maybe it needed to.

"Regarding the Brethren Court, no doubt? In exchange for fair compensation, square my debt with Jones, guarantee my freedom?" Jack asked, taking both glasses from Beckett's clean hands and downing them, the burn bringing back his brilliance.

"Of course, it's just good business," Beckett said and Jack remembered all the other times he'd heard the man say that and his brand felt new.

"Were I in a divulgatory mood, what then might I divulge?" Jack asked, a brow raising.

"Everything," Beckett breathed, and Jack could see the depth of the madness behind his eyes. "Where are they meeting? Who are the pirate lords? What is the purpose of the nine pieces of eight?" he asked in a breathy whisper, leaning in too close for Jack's liking.

Jack looked down, the row of small figurines and silver coins staring back at him on a mapped table and he made a plan.

Xx

"Beckett agreed the Black Pearl was to be mine," Sao Feng said with frustration. Anna felt a sick grin come to her lips.

"Lord Beckett's not going to give up the only ship that can outrun the Dutchman, now is he?" Mercer asked, walking away. Anna stepped forward, her eyes on Sao Feng.

"You black-hearted snake," she hissed, her eyes narrowed. "I hope you see now, that your treachery will only lead to further treachery." She paused a moment, her eyes scanning his scars and his angry eyes. "And one day, it will land you sinking to the bottom of the ocean, and I will laugh."

Barbossa sent her a look, stepping in front of her and looking back at the pirate lord. "It's a shame they're not bound to honor the Code of the Brethren, ain't it? Because honor's a hard thing to come by nowadays," he said, the unsubtle dig making Anna smile again.

"There's no honor in remaining with the losing side. Leaving it for the winning side, that's just good business," Sao Feng replied and Anna didn't miss Beckett's phrase dripping from this pirates tongue.

"The losing side, ye say?" Barbossa said with a grin and Anna stood beside Tia, her eyes on the two before her. She was waiting to catch up to their game.

"They have the Dutchman, now the Pearl. And what do the Brethren have?" Sao Feng demanded, fury lined in his eyes and Anna could feel it rising again in her chest and she wished she knew how to push it down but Jack wasn't there to hold her back anymore.

"We have _Calypso_," Barbossa whispered, his eyes sliding to the tight group of women and Sao Feng followed him and he liked things going to plan.

"Calypso! An old legend!" Sao Feng said with a shake of his head and Anna grinned when she caught on to the look in Barbossa's eyes.

"No, the goddess herself, bound in human form. I intend to release her, but for that I need the Court, all the Court," Barbossa said darkly.

Xx

"You can keep Barbossa, the belligerent homunculus and his friend with the wooden eye both, and Turner...especially Turner. And Swann, keep her as well, bloody murderess. The rest go with me aboard the Pearl, and I will lead you to Shipwreck Cove, where I will hand you the pirates and you will NOT hand me to Jones. Bloody fair deal, don't you think?" Jack said, waving a woman's fan delicately.

"And what of Miss Windsor?" Beckett asked, an eyebrow raised. Jack stopped, his eyes widening slightly and his hand twitched.

"What about her?" he said, slightly off color, his voice higher than it should have been. Beckett smiled.

"Her father isn't…the most agreeable man at the best of times," he said with a hollow smile. "But I've been…promised a certain advantage over my superiors if I can assure she will become complacent," he admitted.

"Complacent?" Jack asked in confusion. "Anna? She was right, you are mad."

"Madness is a matter of perspective."

Xx

"What are you proposing, Captain?" Sao Feng questioned, the salty wind whispering across the deck of the Pearl.

"What be you accepting, Captain?" Barbossa asked.

"The girl," the other man quipped.

"What?" Elizabeth asked quickly, her eyes wide.

"Not…you…" Sao Feng said softly, his eyes on the woman next to her. Anna looked back up, her eyes huge.

"Beg pardon?"

Xx

Beckett turned, his eyes gleaming and bright. "Jack! I've just recalled, I have this wonderful compass which points to whatever I want. So for what do I need you?"

Jack smiled, his mind racing to find a solution and it was in his grasp within the moment and he knew he was a genius sometimes.

"It points to what you want most, and that's not the Brethren Court, is it?" Jack asked lightly.

"Then, what is?" Beckett asked.

"Me," he said with a smile. "Dead," he clarified, his smile dropping.

Xx

"Annie is not part of any bargain!" Will said quickly, his voice carrying over the shouts of other men and Anna glared at him.

"Out of the question," Barbossa agreed with a smile her way and she smiled back, anger making her reckless, recklessness making her ready for anything.

"It was not a question," Sao Feng said to Will.

"Done," she said quickly, stepping forward slightly.

"What? Not done!" Will said, coming closer to her with worry across his face and she wished she could eradicate it like she could when he was little.

"I can't sit by and let this happen, Will, if this is what it takes then; done," she said, looking from him to the Captains.

"Annie, don't do this," Will nearly begged. "They're pirates."

"I see no problem with pirates, Will, I've dealt with them long enough," she said, her voice hard but her eyes soft. "Let me do this, Will. I need to do this," she whispered. He stepped aside, his shoulders slumped inwards as Elizabeth ran her fingers over his arm to soothe him.

"So, we have an accord?" Barbossa asked with a grin.

Xx

"Although if I kill you, then I can use the compass to find...Shipwreck Cove, was it? Cut out the middleman, as it were," Beckett said, turning to face him with a small gun in his hand. Victory was in his eyes and Jack always hated that look.

"With me killed, you'd arrive at Shipwreck Cove, find its stronghold nigh impregnable, able to withstand blockade for years, and then you'd wish, 'Oh, if only there were someone I had not killed inside to assure that the pirates then come outside...'" Jack said with a suave smile. He was back in his element, he only wished Anna could be there to see her.

"And you can accomplish all this, can you?"

"You may kill me, but you may never insult me. Who am I?" Jack asked with a flourish of his hands. Beckett floundered and Jack wondered how smart the man really was. "I'm Captain Jack Sparrow," he mumbled, offended. The ship shook around them, and Jack suddenly knew the Pearl would depart without him. He used the moment to rush to Beckett and shake his hand roughly. "Done!"

He rushed on deck, moving quickly towards a canon, overlapping ropes across the mast and attaching it the end, a figurine he'd previously snatched off the mapped table serving as his canon ball.

"You're mad," Beckett said in shock, watching his line up his shot. Jack smiled.

"Thank goodness for that, because if I wasn't, this would probably never work," he said lightly, lighting the wick and letting out his signature hoarse scream as the shot fired, rope yanking him into the air and vaulting him across the sea to the Pearl. He lay, unaffected on the statues on the Black Pearl. His crew rushed to him, looking everywhere but where he was until they finally saw him. He grinned down at them. "And that was without a single drop of rum," he said, dropping down onto the deck. "Where's Anna? I can't believe she missed that."

The crew was silent as he moved forward and his expression darkened.

"She went with Sao Feng to get us out," Will admitted. Jack stared at him, a long drawn out moment that frightened the crew. He moved to Will, less than a foot from his face, almost snarling at the man before him.

"Send this pestilent traitorous cowhearted yeasty codpiece to the brig," he spat, his eyes dark and furious and Will had never seen him like this. He wondered just how much of his fury had to do with his mutiny, and how much it had to do with Anna's leaving.


	12. Chapter 12

**Guys, i would really appreciate reveiws on this one. I really do love you guys, and the amount of reveiws will not not stop me from updating, because i love you guys so much ^_^, but i would really appreciate feedback. Thank you so so much those who have and continue to reveiw and everyone who added me to the story/author alert/ fav list. It means a lot.**

**-Han**

The room she was in was dark, candlelit and quiet, the gentle rocking of the sea the only indicator of their movement through the ocean. Anna had decided quickly the part she was supposed to play, the Goddess, and let the Asian women drape her in fine silks and leathers. She smiled politely when they tried to put on a hat she did not find attractive and told them that she preferred her hair in chopsticks. Sao Feng crooned to her in his language and she kept her face even and clear of any feeling.

The women were dismissed and Anna looked up slowly, carefully, her eyes hard and rolling beneath as she thought a Goddess's might. He stepped towards her, and she leaned against a wooden pole, her chin tipped up just the slightest.

"By this time tomorrow we will arrive at Shipwreck Cove, and you will be free. Calypso," he finished in a whisper, his face leaning in closer to hers and she could see the edges of his scars so perfectly. She smiled at the name, keeping eye contact.

"Is that what you choose to call me?" she asked softly, her eyes roaming over the man before her. "I am known by so many names, I forget," she admitted.

"Not the name you fancy, I imagine, out of the many that you have. But it is what we call you," he said calmly. She nodded slowly, her eyes growing darker.

"We being the Court," she hissed the name and thanked any god available that she knew her stories well. She knew of the Brethren Court and she knew what they had supposedly done to the goddess.

"You confirm it?" He asked suddenly, clearly having thought the stories were untrue. She nodded slowly.

"The first Brethren Court bound me to human form," she said as if she were angered by the action. "So that rule of the sea would not belong to me but…"

"Men," he finished. She nodded again, and allowed him to continue speaking. "But one such as you should never be anything less than what you are," he whispered, trailing a finger down her cheek. She shivered in disgust from the touch.

"Beautiful words," she said softly, "for a captor. But even the sweetest words lose their charm, when whispered through bars," she hissed. Something in her felt the pain of this Goddess, the want for freedom pulsing through her veins.

"Can I be blamed for my efforts? All men are drawn to the sea, perilous though it may be," he said with a small smile.

"And some forget that the sea does not stop its swell for the justification of those men's crimes," she said softly, a hint of a sneer around the corners of her mouth.

"All I offer is my desire," he said calmly, stepping back slightly.

"And in return?" Anna asked gently.

"I would have your gifts, should you choose to give them."

Anna stepped forward slightly, her hips swaying unconsciously and her lip curling. "And if I should choose, not?"

"Then I will take," he said coming closer to her. "You're fury." he crushed his mouth to hers, and her mind stopped and for a moment he was a mass of lips and teeth and tongue on her unyielding mouth. She remembered the last time she'd been kissed, the first time. The time Jack had kissed her in Port Royal.

She pushed back onto him, her hand rising to drag her nails across Sao Feng's skin. He scrambled back, his hand rising to his bleeding cheek. Her chest rose and fell and she belonged to two things only, the sea and to Jack, and no one else would touch her.

The Captain glared at her and made to move forward towards her, his eyes alight with fury. Before he could finish even the first step the side of the ship was blown away in a fiery blast that seemed to happen slowly to Anna as she watched a large, splintered, piece of wood skewer Sao Feng. Her face turned away from falling debris her eyes tightly shut against the world around them. Her hand rose to her mouth as she turned back slowly, seeing the Captain pinned to the wall opposite her, dark blood slipping around the large piece of wood sticking from his abdomen.

Anna rushed towards him, falling to her knees and flicking hair out of her eyes. "Sao Feng," she whispered in something like shock.

He looked up at her, meeting her eyes and raising his hand to his neck, snapping off his necklace and holding it in front of her. "Here...please. With all nine pieces of eight, you will be free. Take it! You are captain now. Go in my place to Shipwreck Cove," he told her his eyes beginning to look tired around the edges and his breathing started to become labored and weak.

"Me?" she asked breathlessly, wishing she could lend the ability of her lungs to shrink and expand to the dying man before her. She heard Tai Hung come in behind her, but Sao Feng gripped her shoulder, pulling her down to his face, a whisper of air flowing from him.

"Forgive me, Calypso," he begged with his final breath and released her, falling back his hand open and slack. His eyes were blank to her and the world around them and they saw nothing.

"What did he tell you?" Tai hung demanded, glaring at the woman as she stood slowly, the necklace grasped in her hand. Her eyes rose slowly to the sailor before her.

"He-he made me Captain," she whispered. He glared at her, turning and running out onto the deck and Anna followed him, her fingernails digging into her palm. As she met the night air she was grabbed by a crewman of the Dutchman and she remembered the first time it had happened.

"You are not my Captain," Tai Hung spat, writhing against his own bonds.

Slick skin and pointed barnacles pressed against her and she wished it wasn't that eel again. She hated the feelings they brought back, emptiness and fear. She pushed them down, her chin sticking up almost arrogantly, her back stiff and the foreign clothes molded to her body and made her look like a warrior might. Some ancient fighter.

"Annabelle?" Her name was called across the deck and she flinched. The voice making memories rise in her and every moment she didn't mourn for him rushed back and guilt weighed in on her consciousness and every breath she took felt like a labor. Her head snapped up at the implications behind the voice she knew so well. The first voice she heard after the pirate attack on the crossing from England.

"James?" she breathed, the tone of her voice sounding weak and she didn't like it but shock made her sound soft.

She thrashed against her guard, breaking his grasp and running at the clean-shaken Admiral James Norrington, the man she thought she'd lost. The man she knew from their first adventure brought back and raised rank. Propriety meant nothing as her body hit his, her arms around his neck in an instant, her breathing accelerated. He hugged her back on impulse, and she could feel his heart beating.

She thought this was the first time he'd held her, that she could remember.

"Thank God, you're alive," he whispered against her neck, and she squeezed her arms.

"Me?" she asked, laughing almost breathlessly. "Thank God, _you _are alive. James, I thought I'd lost you."

"Annabelle, you're father will be overjoyed," he said, stepping back slightly. Her head tilted, eyes wounded.

"I can't go back to him," she said softly. "You know what he's done."

"But, surely you are going back to England, like Elizabeth's father," he said with a smile that stood out on his carved face.

"Her father's dead," Anna said quietly. "She's alright though," she added for his benefit.

"That's impossible," he whispered. "At any rate, you're going back to England, and being wed to Beckett, remember?" he asked.

Anna lifted her bare left hand, her fingers dancing slightly in the half-light of the lanterns. Her eyes were sad on the man before her, denial was written on his face. "Did Beckett tell you that?" she asked softly, her voice was gentle.

"B-but, you will be safe there, you will not be tried," he rambled, his cool grey eyes flitting over her in worry.

"I don't want to be safe, James. I want to be free," Anna said quietly. His eyes seemed to deepen and something like regret pooled in them, but he couldn't say anything else.

"Who among you do you name as Captain?" That Scottish lilt rang through her ears and she lifted her head as Tai Hung pointed her out, her chin lifted.

"Ah, Miss Windsor, come to finally join my crew?" Davy Jones asked, approaching her with his thumping gait. His fiery green eyes seemed to bore into her soul, but Anna couldn't find it in her to be afraid of him. She knew of his softer side, now. Knew of his devotion to the voodoo woman.

"No thank you," she said as politely as she could.

"Do you fear death?" he asked slowly, leaning into her until he could brush her with his tentacle beard. She stared back into his eyes, deep blue meeting acidic green. She shook her head slowly.

"Not so much, anymore," she said softly, her eyes tracing the monster before her. "She still thinks of you, you know," she said before she could stop herself and she wished there was a way to erase the moment. Shock sunk into his eyes, rolling and changing and spitting out fury and pain and maybe even fear.

His body began to shake, tentacles popping and what was left of lips snarling and a growl erupted from his throat. He made to lunge at her, claw raised and ready to snap closed on her tan throat. She wished she hadn't flinched, but she did.

"Tow the ship," Norrington's voice broke through the haze of her fear and the blinding force of Jones' fury. "Put the prisoners in the brig, and the captain shall have my quarters."

"James," she whispered, drawing his attention and the man looked at her with broken, desperate eyes. "I'm not Elizabeth." The sound carried to him and he broke even further, denial mixing within the depths of his grey eyes and she wished she could heal him.

"I know," he said hoarsely, Jones' eyes snapping to him and her and back at him and the Captain tilted his head in confusion.

"No, you don't," Anna said quietly. "I…I need to stay with the crew."

"W-what?" he asked, stepping back slightly. "Anna you don't know what you're doing. I can't protect you if you make these choices."

"I'm aware, but" she paused, swallowing. "I'm choosing a side, James. What's yours?" she asked, her eyes meeting his again as she stepped back, blending into the background of crewmen, her head still held high, face soft.


	13. Chapter 13

**Happy Thanksgiving! If you caught a moment away from the insanity you are no doubt enduring, you have my sincerest thanks. So this is the holiday for giving, so I am. Thank you guys so much for reading, and I hope you take the extra second to review. Have a wonderful holiday!**

**-Han**

The prison cell was water logged, reaching her ankles and swirling around her and she wondered what was in it. The bars were coated in slim and sea-weed and everything about them made Anna resist putting her fingers around them. Instead she braced her forearms on them, her fingers threading through her long hair.

Occasionally she looked up, watching the passing crewmember with hollow eyes and debating whether or not to call out to them. She sighed, her crew behind her were ignoring her, seeing her as an unfit Captain. Women should not be captains.

She looked up, her eyes tracing every one of the Dutchman's crew, her eyes searching for the man Will had described as his father. The way he had talked about him, even as a child, had made her wish her own father was like that. Was that caring, that dedicated to his family.

"Bootstrap?" she asked, her eyes flitting around herself. She repeated herself, louder. "Bootstrap Bill?"

"Bootstrap?" a hollow voice asked. A thing she had taken to be part of the wall, pulled itself away from the paneled wood and breathed heavily. "You know my name?"

"Will told me," she said softly, moving closer to him, her fingers wrapping around the slim-covered bars.

"William," he breathed. "He made it! He's alive!" he said louder, a smile coming to his pale face and Anna couldn't see the resemblance between him and his son, but it might have been because of the sea life molded to his face.

"Yes," Anna nodded. "And he's going to save you," she said strongly, no doubt in her mind that he would do it.

"He's coming for me!" Bill said with a grin that made something in her break.

Anna nodded, her face drifting ever closer. "He's doing everything he can," she said.

Desperation and denial floated to his features and he stared at her with blank eyes. "You're the one. The reason he can't come. You're Elizabeth," he breathed.

"No," she said quickly. "I'm Annabelle. Will is like a brother to me, and I _know _he will find a way to save you. I don't know how," she admitted at the look that rose to his face. "But I know he will. He will set you free."

"He spoke of you," he said after a movement. "You're the one that saved him."

"Yes," she said after a moment where she debated if he should know. She pulled up her sleeves slightly, the silk pulling back to reveal her burns. "Will is like a brother to me," she repeated. "I would do anything for him."

"Anything?" Bill asked, the word sounding awkward in his mouth and hope was rising. "William can't save me. Every step he takes toward me is a step away from Elizabeth. He won't pick me."

"He will find a way to keep you both," she said quickly, cutting across his depression nd fear.

"If Jones be slain, he who slays him must take his place. Captain forever. The Dutchman must always have a captain. If he saves me, he loses her. He won't pick me," Bill repeated, shaking his head so that the barnacles on his neck cracked. "I wouldn't pick me."

"If you think like that, he'll never be able to get you out of this," she said suddenly, her eyes hard and daring. "You have to know that he's coming for you. Just like I know I will always protect him, and Elizabeth knows he'll always love her," she said. "Bootstrap," she whispered, trying to regain his attention and he snapped his eyes back to her and looked at her as if just seeing her.

"You know my name?" he asked, confusion in his eyes. Annabelle nodded, her brown curls falling in her stormy eyes and she wished she could feel something other than pity for this man.

"I know you son," she said with a small, fragile smile.

"William! He's coming, wait and see!" he said brightly, the distant look in his eyes unnerving her and she wished she could do something to save him. "He promised," he whispered, falling back into his place against the ship, as if he were a part of it.

Xx

Will grunted as he strapped down another body to a barrel, happy there had been enough from the EITC to provide the trail for Beckett to follow. His brow scrunched at the thought of what he was doing, who he was betraying. He wondered if Annie would ever forgive him. If she would ever see him as the brother he used to be once he took away all she'd ever wanted; her freedom. But he didn't have a choice. He'd made a promise to his father and there was nothing he could do.

Fear and guilt churned in his stomach as he thought of what he was doing. Leading the enemy to the front door of the pirates. Taking the place of the Captain of the Flying Dutchman, sacrificing his love for Elizabeth for his father.

"Bravo, you escaped the brig even quicker than I expected. William, do you notice something? Or rather do you notice something that is not there to be noted?" Jack asked from behind him and Will's spine stiffened in response. He would never admit that he'd been afraid of Jack since he'd received that cold, dead look after telling him where Anna had gone.

"You haven't raised an alarm," Will said, looking back at the man and standing up. Jack nodded, ambling towards him and Will wondered if he was really as drunk as his gait suggested.

"Odd, isn't it? But not as odd as this. Come up with this all by your lonesome, did you?" Jack asked, gesturing towards the next increment in his bread crumb trail.

"I said to myself, 'think like Jack,'" Will admitted with a faux-suave look, and he wondered if they would ever recapture the friendship they once shared. The days since their first adventure had hardened them.

"And this is what you've arrived at? Lead Beckett to Shipwreck Cove so as to gain his trust, accomplish your own ends? It's like you don't know me at all, mate," Jack said as if hurt, and maybe he was. At the silence he was greeted with, Jack tried again. "And how does your dearly beloved feel about this?" he asked, that smoldering look back in his eyes. Will hesitated just long enough to confirm what Jack had already known. "Ah, you've not seen fit to trust her with it."

"I'm losing her, Jack. Every step I take for my father is a step away from Elizabeth." Will paused. "I'm losing both of them. After this, Annie won't even look at me again," he muttered.

Jack paused at the name, something like fury rising in his stomach and he pushed it down to be suave again. "Mate, if you choose to lock your heart away, you'll lose it for certain. If I may lend a machete to your intellectual thicket - avoid the choice altogether. Change the facts. Let someone else dispatch Jones," he said in that way a pirate should, like he knew what he was doing.

"Who?" Will asked, his brow scrunched in concentration while Jack pretended to look innocent. "You?"

Jack smiled almost nervously, as if he didn't know. "Death has a curious way or reshuffling one's priorities," he said softly before becoming excited again. "I'll slip aboard the Dutchman, find the heart, stab the beating thing. Your father goes free, and you're free to be with your charming murderess," he finished almost bitterly.

"And you're willing to carve out your heart and bind yourself to the Dutchman, forever?" Will asked, avoiding the question no one wanted answered.

"No mate, I'm free forever. Free to sail the seas beyond the edges of the map, free from death itself," Jack said and he wondered if Will knew how far he was letting the man see.

"What about Annie?" Will asked after a moment, his eyes looking almost scared for the woman, sad.

"What about her?" he asked his eyes shifting away from Will and to the horizon.

"I'm not a simpleton, Jack," Will said strongly, seeing through the man far easier than he should have. "I know," he said simply.

"You don't know anything," Jack said softly, his eyes far away and his voice sounded almost cold. Emotions he was unaccustomed to were swirling in his chest and he pushed them down again, like he had every day since he had kissed her that first time. Because he was a pirate, and pirates didn't have emotions. "You don't know anything," he repeated.

"You can hide it from her and from yourself, but you can't from me," Will said. "I see the way you look at her."

Jack was silent, his eyes growing hard and Will thought he saw a hint of cruelty around his eyes.

"I know how you feel," Will tried and Jack stared at him.

"Dear William," he said, almost tauntingly. "I do not _feel _even, about Annie," he said and he hated himself for lying but he didn't know what he was feeling to begin with.

"Maybe you'll see it, one day," Will said quietly. Jack rolled his eyes and tossed Will his compass, tired of the conversation and the lying. "What's this for?" Will asked, the compass in his hand.

"Think like me, it'll come to you," Jack said with a smile. He leaned in, breathing rum into Will's face, the extremity of his intoxication transferring into the man before him. Will's eyes rolled, his body crumpling and falling over the side of the ship with the floating body tied to the barrel. "My regards to Davy Jones!" Jack shouted his goodbye with a smile on his face and he pretended it didn't hurt in the slightest to see him go.


	14. Chapter 14

**Hi guys! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday, and that you take the few seconds to review after you read this. Thank you everyone!**

**-Han**

Anna heard the clink of a lock before she opened her eyes. She sat up, her eyes wide and somehow her hair had remained in chopsticks. She stood hesitantly, water dripping from her Asian armor and silks. James Norrington stood before her with the keys, a small smile on his pale lips.

"James? What are you doing?" Anna asked in shock, stepping forward slightly.

"Choosing a side," he said with determination, opening her cell. She nodded encouragingly at the crew, trust she knew she should have rid herself of rushing back into her system. She let the crew go first, swarming out of the cell until she could step out with her head held high. She smiled at the man before her, the Admiral, and looked at him searchingly.

The moment between them seemed frozen, the swirl of water around their ankles made their movements heavy and slow. Before she could be sure what was coming out of her mouth, she was speaking, emptying her fears and truths into the air between them.

"You need to come with us," she whispered as they rushed above deck and to the stern, the ship- her ship ready to welcome them. "I know I'm not Elizabeth," she said quietly, the candle light making her eyes glow. "But I care about you, James. I know I'm not what you want, who you want…but I need you to be okay. I need you to come with us."

She had recognized the way he seemed to see through her, the burning in his heart to be sated by only one woman, one who wasn't her. The insistent way his soul yearned for Governors daughter had never faded, never blended into the background of his thoughts. Anna could tell that her arrival on the ship had only made his pain seem brighter, until it was all he could do to pretend Elizabeth was there. Until it was all he could do to blend Anna and his ideal together until they were one person and he needed to save them both.

Her words had made something like clarity rush into his grey-green eyes, as they rushed to the stern of the ship. They had reached the one of the lines connecting the two ships, half the crew had already made their way across, dirty fingers and legs clinging to frayed rope. The sea beneath them churned and swelled and it was black in the night, ominous. She spun James to look at her, eyes searching for a hint of the man she was once friends with.

"James," she whispered, drawing his attention and he looked at her as if seeing her for the first time. She could hear shouts of alarm in the background, but all that mattered was the honorable, good man before her. Tai Hung hovered beside her, an unwilling loyalty to his new Captain in his eyes. She cast her eyes to her first mate, giving him a long look and stern nod towards the line. He nodded at her gratefully, swinging his body up. He cast her an almost worried look as he prepared himself to go.

"Annie." She paused, looking back at James, the sound of her name shortened on his tongue made her afraid that this was the only time he would say it. Like he was letting it slip because this was the only opportunity he would have to say it aloud. "You are so much more than the girl I saved," he whispered. "So much more than the woman I had taken you to be."

He leaned close to her, pressing a soft, chaste kiss to her cheek. Her eyes slipped closed and she could feel his soft breath on her skin, the pressure of his lips. She would never admit that a tear fell from her cheek, the salty water making a trail down her skin.

"You must go, I will follow you," he whispered urgently.

The sounds of the watchman were closer; shouts and alarm raising and her heart was beating faster than it should have. The sea-drenched deck around her and the flicker of candle light made the moment seem eerie and more frightening. She breathed deeply, guilt and fear mixing in her heart as she nodded to herself and made the choice she knew James would make anyway. Instead of running, instead of pulling him with her, she wrapped her arms around his neck, goodbye's drying on her lips and she had so much to say to the man she'd known for so long. She had so much to tell him.

"I know you're lying," she said to him, her face in his neck. "Our destinies will never be joined, only crossed in time," she whispered, her eyes closing for a moment and James thought that she was something different. He thought she was something free and real. "I will tell Elizabeth, I promise. I'll tell her what you've done for us, the sacrifices you've made," she whispered fervently, and she knew that was enough for James. Enough for the good man who loved a woman that would never love him back.

She stepped back, and his smile was so genuine it caught her off guard, a sad contentment in his eyes and it made her heart clench. "Thank you," he said softly, pulling his sword from his belt and preparing to face his death. "Thank you, Annie."

"Goodbye," she whispered, stepping onto the railing and wrapping her arms and legs on the rope. The movement was slow, each agonizing pull of her limbs taking her further away from the man she should have saved. But somehow she knew that nothing she could have done would have made him follow her. She wasn't Elizabeth. She wasn't the woman he loved, but at least he had seen her for who she was for a moment, if only a moment.

She could hear Bootstrap approaching, cries of alarm and prisoners escaping on his lungs and Anna felt herself starting to crawl back. Panic in her blood made it pump faster through her veins her breathing was shallow and fearful and she could hear Tai Hung call her back from his position yards away from her. She saw James raise his sword, the beautiful craftsmanship stirring her mind until she remembered the way she and Will had slaved together over it for weeks before the ceremony. The candlelight caught the steel of the sword and for a moment it was all she thought about and she barely even noticed her fingers go numb around the thick rope supporting her weight.

"_James!" _she screamed as Bootstrap advanced, his sword drawn. James Norrington, Admiral of the British Royal Navy, turned and shot the line supporting her and her crew, sending them plunging into freezing black rolling waves. Her head broke the water, her breath coming raspy and long-suffering, and a violent gasp for much needed air. She struggled beneath her thick armor to stay afloat, James' name refusing to die on her lips. Tai Hung was pulling her arm, his face impassive in the dark, but maybe it was empathetic.

She shook off his assistance and swam the rest of the way to the Hai Peng, her arms cutting through black rolling waves and seeming to push her towards it. She climbed aboard by herself, her head held high as she made her way to the helm, each step echoing and she was sure she had their attention.

"Cast off! Separate all connecting lines. Bring her around, hard to port; let's put as much space between us and the Dutchman as we can," she instructed in a monotone, her voice clean and clipped, her eyes trained on the helm ahead of her. "Adjust course to 16 degrees," she spouted off, the men rushing to do as she commanded in every direction. She reach the helm, her hands spread flat o the railing. "Men, we're going to Shipwreck Cove."

Xx

Then sun bathed the deck of the Black Pearl, the sky a bright, clear blue. Gibbs stepped easily among the crew, spouting orders as they entered Shipwreck Cove. Piles of broken and battered ships lined they bay, splintered wood and the remnants of flags floated calmly above the water, mixing together until they could have made ships of their own. Cliffs lined both sides of the bay, the entry thin enough to look foreboding.

"Look alive, and keep a weather eye! Not for naught it's called Shipwreck Island, where lies Shipwreck Cove and the town of Shipwreck," Gibbs said with excitement in his eyes and his voice for the first time in a while.

Pintel repeated the order and crewmen rushed in the cool morning to their stations, a gentle breeze fluttering their clothing. Jack walked closer to Gibbs, his swaying steps almost natural on the deck as his head tipped up and he took in the beautiful sky. He wished briefly, and only briefly, that Anna could be there to see the way his ship rode the gentle waves like a stallion. The pride of his life made the scene look so complete.

"For all that pirates are clever cobs, we are an unimaginative lot when it comes to naming things," Jack said truthfully, his eyes tracing every expanse of Cliffside.

"Aye," Gibbs agreed, coming to stand beside him at the railing as they watched the clear blue water.

"I once sailed with a geezer lost both of his arms and part of his eye," Jack said suddenly, that old excitement in his eyes as he prepared himself for any sort of story anyone would listen to. He was a sailor at heart, and all sailors loved to be listened to.

"And what did you call him?" Gibbs asked.

Jack paused, his head tilting slightly. "Larry," he said finally, finishing lamely.

Both men paused as their eyes found Barbossa and Tia talking quietly, talking in forced whispers that wanted to rise to shouts. Jack could read lips, and he was grateful for the skill as he watched them speak.

He grunted to himself as Barbossa spoke about why he had to be brought back, and why Jack couldn't stay dead. "My end was not well deserved," Jack muttered to himself at Barbossa's words. There was a pause, in which Jack watched closer until he nodded almost sadly.

"Somehow I knew she was the one," he said to himself, watching Calypso be taken away. Tia's mocha skin seemed to catch the light and Jack wondered what she would look like without the binds, without the pirate lords tying her down. Before she sank below the deck and towards the brig, she caught his eye, a dark smile rising to her lips. He swallowed, deciding quickly that he did not want to find out.

He didn't want to know what Calypso would look like once freed, because he somehow knew all that would matter. He knew her eyes would be alive with fire and fury and it would be set on those that had bound her in the first place. Her power would swell within her being and she would set it loose on the seas he thought he knew so well. She would change them and make them violent and he would be at the mercy of the rolling waves, along with every other man, woman, and child who dare sail the seas again.

No, he did not want to know what Tia Dalma would be like stripped of her bonds and set free as the Goddess Calypso.


	15. Chapter 15

**Hey guys! Thank you so much for the reviews, i feel loved again -sniffle- keep it up please? I love all of you so so so much, and the next chapter should be day after tomorrow. It would ber sooner, but i've been sick recently. I'm fine and all, but the headaches make it harder to write. You know how it is. Love you!**

**-Han**

Will was uncomfortable in the crisp, clean office. Even in Port Royal he didn't have such luxury; it made him afraid to break something, with his rough hands and clumsy movements. He tried not to look at Beckett as he reached forward and gingerly picked up a glass. He was supposed to be calm and unaffected as they dealt. He pretended like his back didn't stiffen as he heard Davy Jones walk through the door.

"I cannot be summoned like some mongrel pup," Jones said in something like contempt, the heavy falls of his peg leg accentuating his words. Will stared down into his cup and tried not to think about Anna, and how he hoped Jones hadn't caught up to her, how he hoped she wasn't rotting in the Dutchman's brig. He tried not to think about how he was betraying her.

"Apparently you can," Beckett said with even more contempt and Will disliked the man even more. "I believe you know each other," he added, waving a pale hand towards Will. A mask fell onto Will's eyes, and he was no longer affected by anything. It was a trick he learned from Anna when they were young, when she was sad and he was in the room. He could see the mask fall down on her eyes and she would hide her sadness from him.

"Come to join my crew again, Master Turner?" Jones asked with a laugh and Will felt like rolling his eyes. He wasn't afraid anymore. He brought the cup to his lips and drank, making a small noise of appreciation.

"Not yours. His," he said, pointing towards Beckett. He looked over his shoulder slightly and smirked. "Jack Sparrow sends his regards."  
>"Sparrow?" Jones asked in confusion, the lilt in his voice making it sound like a song.<p>

"You've not told him?" Will asked, glancing at Beckett. "We rescued Jack from the locker along with the Black Pearl," he said, that calculating look falling into his eyes and he thanked Annie for teaching him to be strong.

"What else have you _not _told me?" Jones asked dangerously, and Will remembered when he was afraid of him, when the cold look in the monster's eyes made him think of death and pain. Now he was only a dog on a leash.

"There is an issue far more troublesome," Beckett said impatiently, the mask on his face slipping and Will wondered when it would break completely. "I believe you are familiar with a person called Calypso?"

Will could practically feel the pain and sadness rush into the monster behind him, could practically feel the heartbreak and he wondered if Jones knew you didn't feel with your physical heart.

"Not a person. A heathen god. One who delights in cursing men with their wildest dreams and then revealing them to be hollow and naught but ash. The world is well rid of her," Jones said bitterly. Will raised the cup to his lips again, using it to piece his mask together.

"Not quite so well, actually," he said taking a sip. "The Brethren Court intends to release her."

"No!" Jones shouted, fury rising in him. "They cannot! The first court promised to imprison her forever. _That _was our agreement!"

"Your agreement?" Beckett asked calmly, looking up. Jones managed to look embarrassed, nervous even.

"I showed them how to bind her," he mumbled, something like shame in his voice. "She could not be trusted. She gave me no choice. We must act before they release her," he said as if it were justification of his crimes. Will looked up, realization in his eyes.

"You loved her," he whispered. "She's the one. And you betrayed her," he nearly hissed. Will could not understand how even the monster before him could turn his back on love, something so pure and real.

"_She. Pretended. To Love. Me_," Jones spat, pain so clear in his eyes it hurt Will to see. He could only imagine the empathy Anna would feel. He could imagine her rising to face him and even laying a hand on his shoulder. He could imagine her looking into his broken eyes with her own and whispering so only he could hear; _Davy Jones, you're not a monster after all. _"She betrayed me."

"And after which betrayal did you cut out your heart, I wonder?" Will questioned and he wished his voice wasn't as harsh.

Jones swung his crab pincher at Will, knocking the infuriating tea cup out of his hand and spattering tea on the wall, a few drops landing on a large painting of Beckett. "Do not test me," he spat.

"I hadn't finished that," Will said blandly. He stood, his back straight as he got to business. "You will free my father," he told Jones, something like a challenge in his eyes. "And you will guarantee both Elizabeth's and Annie's safety, along with my own," he told Beckett.

"Your terms are steep, Mr. Turner. We will expect fair value in return," Beckett said, his face still infuriatingly blank.

"There is only one price I will accept. Calypso murdered!" Jones said strongly, and Will could still hear the pain.

"Calypso is aboard the Black Pearl. Jack has sailed the Black Pearl to Shipwreck Cove,"

Will said quickly, his mind spinning ahead to give them what they wanted, his guilt buried in his chest.

"And with you no longer aboard her, how do you propose to lead us there?" Beckett asked, standing finally from his chair. Will turned back towards him, Jack's compass sailing through the air until the Lord caught it.

"What is it you want most?" Will asked with a smirk.

Xx

Shipwreck Cove stood before them in some sort of proud, misshapen glory. Stacks of dilapidated ships, piled on top of each other, splintered wood carrying lanterns that cast eerie glow over the smoky cove. Jack would never understand how they managed to stack ships bigger than the Pearl up so high. He supposed you didn't really have to understand it.

The docks were crowded with a practical armada, ships nudging ships, trying to make their own way to dock. They could hear the chatter of voices from the opening of the cove; sure the hollowed-out ships housed all the pirates one place could house.

"Look at them all!" Pintel said in appreciation, his yellowed eyes roaming over the thousands of ships and pirates, crowding together within the fortress. He stood by the railing, as if it would bring him even closer to the mecca of piracy.

Life flowed into their veins and it was like their first adventure, their first kill, their first steal. The life-blood of piracy pouring into them again until they were young and free and ready to do anything. Every man breathed deeper, clearer.

Elizabeth was braced against the opposite railing, something like disgust in her eyes. She could heart the shouting and merriment and gun shots, and it made her sick to her stomach. All she wanted was Will back. She knew that Jack had gotten rid of him, knew he was in Beckett's hands. She knew something was happening, something big enough to set her on edge.

"There's not been a gathering like this in our lifetime," Barbossa added, coming to stand by Pintel with his head held high. Elizabeth rolled her eyes, as Jack moved to stand by Barbossa. Everyone had been ignoring her since they'd found out what she'd done to Jack. It was even worse now that Will was gone. Her only compensation was that Annabelle was gone too, though she knew no one else shared her sentiment on the subject.

Especially not Jack.

The man himself looked worriedly over the cove, his eyes flitting from ship to ship, recognizing most. He nervously fiddled with the edges of his shirt, a small frown on his lips.

"And I owe them all money."


	16. Chapter 16

**This chapter took me forever! But hey, I'm so awesome I got it done. Hey Ang, I've missed you and your lovely reviews –and I do WANT to be a writer. It remains to be seen if I actually will be one. all other reviewers, I love you guys so much. Please review, seriously, please!**

**-Han**

The chaos made Jack feel alive, more alive than he'd felt in a long time. The shouting and gun shots and the stench of rum and the sea made his chest expand and his heart beat faster. It was the kind of chaos that gave you meaning and made you feel like you were standing on the edge of the world and you were about to jump over. You were filled with gunshots, bursting at the seams with canon blasts and ripped open and left to bleed by slurred curses and shattered liquor bottles. Sinfully sweet in his ears and in his blood, the chaos made him himself.

Jack was smirking again for the first time in a long time and he felt like he was back in the game and ready to play, on his terms. He was ready to bend the world to his fingertips and manipulate it the way he used to, before the monsters were so much bigger than his ship.

He almost jumped when Barbossa dropped a cannon ball on the table to call order and it reminded him of impersonating a judge in France. He didn't even speak French. _Bloody Cheese-eating Surrender Monkeys, _he thought to himself, having no love for the French or their language, and he much preferred the soul of the Spanish but he was getting ahead of himself.  
>He brought himself back to earth and Barbossa was leaning back in that way that made you think he had power. The scowl that rested on Jack's lips told you he didn't agree.<p>

"As he who issued summons, I convene this, the fourth Brethren Court. To confirm your lordship and right to be heard, present now your pieces of eight, my fellow Cap'ns," Barbossa shouted to the room, and Ragetti held out a bowl to each Captain. Pieces of junk plopped into the wooden bowl, a playing card standing out to Jack's eyes as the Frenchmen's. _Dirty Frenchmen, _Jack thought in his head and he had to shake himself to be back again.

"Those aren't pieces of eight, they're just pieces of junk," Pintel pointed out, disappointment in his eyes.

"Aye, the original plan was to use nine pieces of eight to bind Calypso, but when the first court met, the brethren were to a one, skint broke," Gibbs supplied, watching the Court like a proud father might. A chess piece was added to the mix.

"So change the name," Pintel said belligerently, watching his counterpart collect the remaining pieces.

"To what? 'Nine Pieces of Whatever We Happened to Have in Our Pockets at the Time'? Oh yes, that sounds very pirate," Gibbs said with a roll of his eyes. Pintel nodded almost grimly and Jack smiled to himself. He knew he kept Gibbs around for a reason.

"Mr. Ragetti, if you will," Barbossa said with wide-stretched smile and a dirty hand held out. Ragetti eyed it nervously.

"I kept it safe for you, just like you said when you gave it to me," he said softly, his good eye flickering around himself as if he was looking for a way out.

"Aye, ya have, but now I need it back," Barbossa said with a grin. The Captain reached out and slapped the man on the back of the head, his wooden eye going flying into the bowl and Barbossa smiled. Something like power flowed through him and he knew he was doing this the way he ought to. He would win, and he liked winning.

"Sparrow!" One of the Captains shouted it and it reminded Barbossa that he hadn't won yet. Jack stood slightly apart from the group now, his fingers skimming a string of beads ended in a coin from his hair. It hung just over his bandanna and he was eternally proud of himself for never trying to sell it.

"Might I point out that we are still short one pirate lord, and I'm content as a cucumber to wait until Sao Feng joins us," he said with an almost proud grin. It froze on his face when he heard the double doors open.

Anna breathed deeply, walking as calmly as she could into the room as dark-wood and splintered doors creaked open to announce her presence. Tai Hung walked just behind her, his head held high and she thought maybe he respected her a bit.

"Sao Feng is dead," she announced, taking her sword and approaching the globe, the South China Seas in her sights. "He fell the Flying Dutchman." She stabbed her sword deep into the globe until she wondered if it would hit other swords. She moved away, stray pieces of her dark brown hair falling into her eyes from her chopsticks.

Now she wore what she was comfortable in. Another off-the-shoulder cream top with loose sleeves showed her tan shoulders, a thick leather under-bust vest on her abdomen for some form of armor, black breeches with leather pads on her knees. Jack didn't think he'd ever seen her strapped with so many weapons, only recalling her with a sword before. Now holsters tied her down in four places, ammo and swords and guns strapped down to her. The click of her boots could be heard above the hushed murmurs of fear.

"He made you Captain?" Jack asked, sounding almost pleased, as if he had expected it. She nodded slowly, moving to stand beside him.

"He thought I was Calypso," she said softly, her eyes betraying how nervous she was. She was not immune to the chaos around her and he could tell she was hyper-aware, on edge, off the map. Anxiety and Excitement rolled beneath her eyes and it was tinged with something like mourning.

"That I can understand," he said with a smirk that bordered on mischievous. He tried to ignore the way her eyes seemed to linger on Elizabeth as they roamed over the crowd, a hesitant edge to the way she looked at the woman. She shook herself, resignation in her stare before she turned back to the crowd, her hands bracing on the heavy wooden table in front of her.

"Hey!" she shouted, trying to get their attention. There was no immediate response and she rolled her eyes; Jack smiled and moved a step back, almost shielding himself. "_OY!" _she screamed, the slang spewing from her lips and Jack would have never guessed she was royalty. "Listen! Our location has been betrayed. Jones is under the command of Beckett and they're on their way here," she said strongly, her eyes roaming over each Pirate Lord until Jack _could _guess she was royalty. It was as if she was looking down on subjects, and equals all at once.

Chaos once again erupted in the room, pirates shouting scandal at other pirates until it was everyone's fault their fears were coming to hang them by the neck. It was everyone's fault a rope would bite into their skin or a gun would slam into their skulls and horizon's would be so infinitely far from their reaches.

"Who is this betrayer?" Jocard voiced, his French accent slurring his words together and it took everyone a moment to comprehend him.

"Not likely anyone among us," Barbossa said with an encouraging smile.

"Where's Will?" Anna asked suddenly, her head snapping up directly to Jack as he moved to stand beside her and her eyes were wide. The blue looked shockingly deep, almost dark, frenzied and fear behind it and Jack knew his answer wouldn't be the ones he wanted.

"Not among us," he said softly. She nodded almost hesitantly, the anxiety in her eyes dimming when she realized he was still alive. After James had taken his final breath, she didn't think she could handle another death, another friend ripped away from her fingers.

She was ripped back to the conversation as Barbossa spoke again. "And it matters not how they found us. The question is, what will we do now that they have?" The pirate asked strongly, his eyes saying he already had an answer.

"We fight!" Elizabeth shouted, asserting her place with her head held high. She stood slightly apart from Anna unwilling to be near the woman she knew she betrayed. She didn't hate Anna, only hated what she had done and the repercussions. It was not easy to be around a woman that would never forgive you.

"Only a Pirate Lord's input can be taken to account in the Court," Barbossa said quickly, his eyes alight.

Anna rolled her eyes, stepping forward and looking up. "Then I shall say it for her. We have no other choice, we must fight!"

Laughter floated through the room as the pirates seemed to break as one, hilarity coursing through their veins and it was like a high. They were flying on freedom and blasphemy and sin. And it made them feel alive.

"Shipwreck Cove is a fortress, a well-supplied fortress. There is no need to fight if they cannot get to us," Mistress Chang said around her laughter, her powdered face crumpled into a grin.

Anna rolled her eyes and prepared to speak again, growling in the back of her throat when Barbossa cut her off. "There is a third course. In another age, at this very spot, the first court captured the sea goddess, and bound her in her bones," he said, and Anna could hear 'Hoist the Colors' playing in her head at the thought. Barbossa paused for effect.

"That was a mistake. Oh, we tamed the seas for ourselves, aye, but opened the door to Beckett and his ilk. Better were the days when mastery of seas came not from bargains struck with eldritch creatures, but from the sweat of a man's brow and the strength of his back alone. Y'all know this to be true. Gentlemen, ladies," he said, casting his eyes back to Anna with a sly grin. "We must free Calypso."

Hush silence met his words and the confidence faded from his weathered face. Blank faces stared back at him until his smile dropped. As if the pirates minds all started working together at once, shouts erupted and fury was rippling through the crowd and Anna thought this was the only time she'd seen Barbossa unsettled.

"Shoot him!" a Lord ordered, standing and pointing threateningly at Barbossa.

"Cut out his tongue!" another voiced.

"Shoot him and cut out his tongue, then shoot his tongue. And trim that scraggly beard!" Jack said quickly, his eyes wide and a smile threatening to breakout onto his face.

Tai Hung looked like he might say something, might mention that he knew Sao Feng would agree with Barbossa. But one look at Anna and her determined face and he was quiet, passing her almost respectful glances.

"Calypso was our enemy then, she will be our enemy now!" A pirate shouted, drawing rousing cheers from half the crowd.

"It's not likely her moods will have changed!" Pirates were emptying their lungs into the cacophony of sound until shots were fired and fights broke out with noses broken and blood spraying the ground and the long table.

"This is madness," Elizabeth breathed, looking as if she could only ever look in on this world of chaos. Anna and Jack shared a look before smiling slightly.

"This is politics," they said together.

"Meanwhile our enemies bear down upon us," Elizabeth said with some disdain. Anna sighed, brushing the hair from her eyes and Jack followed the movement with his own, seeming enraptured by the movement of her slim fingers pulling through her dark hair.

"If they're not already here," Anna whispered, looking anxiously around her. "This is not going to be easy," she muttered.

"These things rarely are, love," Jack said, almost to himself. "But you can rest assured that ol' Jack knows what he's doin'."

"The day you do anything other than make it up as you go, is the day I learn to fly," she said with a small laugh. Jack scowled mockingly, a teasing glint in his eyes.

He leaned closer to her, and for a minute she let herself hope that he would brush his lips across her own, or her cheek, or her neck. Anywhere and she would be content. Instead his lips rested at her ear, his beard tickling her skin in a way that made it feel aflame. She could feel his smirk.

When he spoke, his voice was soft and rusty at once, like the sound of crashing waves on rocks. The rough tones made a shiver roll down her spine and she wasn't sure how she contained herself, how she made her face impassive. She wasn't sure how she managed to control the frantic beating of her heart and reddening of her face, but eventually his words sank in.

"I would start preparing to feel wind beneath you." 


	17. Chapter 17

**I'm surprised no one commented on the surrender monkeys O.o Haha. Well, we FINALLY have Tia and Jones talking, I hope you liked how I made it my own a bit. Don't forget to review! I love you all.**

**-Han**

The brig of the Black Pearl was not nearly as bad as the one on the Dutchman, no sea water swirled around her dirty laces and it didn't smell like gutted fish and death. Calypso held her locket close to her; listening to the music weave through the silent air, the lull of the ship on the docks almost soothing to her. But nothing was soothing. Being trapped in her single form meant her body burned with the light of her divinity, every heartbeat hurt. She felt a distant kind of sympathy for the body she resided in, but the voodoo woman had been willing to take the Goddess into herself. Her soul had long ago been burned away by Calypso's light.

When the music stopped she slowly closed the locket, the snap heard throughout the room and her eyes rose to the shadowed corner. Her lover walked from the shadow, the darkness slipping off of his form like the fingers of the other world had dragged themselves across him. Davy Jones's movements were heavy and slow. Calypso rose, her head titling slightly and a smile coming to her mocha face.

"My sweet…you come for me," she said, her accent dripping across her words and making them feel deeper. It was something she liked about this body.

"You were expecting me," Jones stated almost harshly, his eyes cold on the woman before him. He ached to trail his hand down her cheek, without leaving a trail of slime behind from his tentacle. He ached to pull her flush against him and whisper that he never mean to hurt her.

"It has been torture, trapped in this single form. Cut off from the sea, from all that I love, from you," she whispered the last statement, the sound of it tasting right on her lips for the first time in a long time.  
>Calypso's body burned again at the mere mention of the sea. Her participation on the voyage had brought her as close to the rolling waves as she had been in lifetimes. It had taken everything in her to not throw herself over into the salty ocean, and let herself be claimed and branded by her lifeblood. She met Jones' hurt and broken eyes and wondered if she should not have pushed her devotion, her love for him.<p>

"Ten years I devoted to the duty you charged to me. Ten years I looked after those who died at sea," Jones said, accusation in his voice and it was beginning to tremble as he finally managed to spit out the rest. To say what a part of him had always been denying. "And finally, when we could be together again, you weren't there. Why weren't you there?" he asked like a small child, broken and soft. Calypso tried not to look guilty.

"Is my nature," she whispered. "Would you love me, if I was anything but what I am?"

Jones looked down, anger and betrayal in his eyes. "I do not love you," he spat. "I am only here on the word of the human girl," he admitted. "I never should have listened to the mutt, what does she know of love?" he asked himself.

"Many things you were, Davy Jones, but never cruel. You have corrupted your purpose, and so yourself," she said sadly, trying to find meaning in the monster before her. "You have turned your back on the love that drove us, drove all at sea. And hid what should have always been mine," she said, reaching out to touch his chest, where his heart should have been.

Jones gasped, dragging air into human lungs as his tentacles and rubbery skin faded and were replaced with his past. Tan skin and a peppered-grey beard with braids were brought to the surface and he felt the burning of her magic rushing through him and he thought he even felt his heartbeat.

"You have turned your back on love," she said again. "The mutt you speak of…" she shook her head and sadness crept into her gaze. "She tried to take her life to be with her love forever. It was only by my power that she is still alive. _She _knows of love, like you once did."

"Calypso," Jones breathed, his eyes growing sad with her explanation and he wished he could place his heart back in his chest. He wished he could take it all back. His hand reached through the bars and brushed along her skin.

"I will be free, and when I am, I will give you my heart. And we will be together always...if only you had a heart to give," she whispered brokenly, taking her hand away. He rippled and returned to his monstrous form. He seemed to break again and the moment hung between them, silent and consuming. And like the vulnerability was never there, Jones grabbed her by the neck with his claw, the serrated edged digging into Calypso's skin. "Why did you come?" she blurted out around the claw. Jones relinquished his claw and tried to pull it through the bars. Aggravation made him abandon it and he stepped through the bars, shimmering as he walked through the matter.

Jones' eyes flickered. "I took the word of a princess," he whispered. "But I wonder what fate you have planned for her and your captors?"

"The girl…the girl will know of mercy, mercy I afford rarely. She has suffered enough within this life," she said softly. Then, Calypso smiled, a cruel thing on her lips and Jones was reminded of all the times he had been afraid of her. How stupid he had felt for falling in love with a Goddess. "But the Brethren Court? The last thing they will learn in this life is how cruel I can be," she spat, hate etched into her features. "And what of your fate, Davy Jones?" she asked as he walked past her, facing the wall with sad eyes.

"My heart will always belong to you," he whispered, the lilt in his voice making it sound like a song as it reached the Goddess. He walked out of the ship, leaving Calypso alone again.

Xx

The chaos felt like it would never end; a constant, violent cacophony of sound and gun shots. Anna was watching it from the outside looking in, like it was a show for her viewing. She felt Jack behind him and was reminded of his words. Whatever he was planning, it made her excited and afraid all at once. It wasn't like the other adventures, where they pieced together parts of a plan as they went and pretended it had been in the cards the whole time. This time, Jack seemed to have an Ace he was guarding, but she didn't know what the rest of the hand was.

Every time she thought about it, she remembered the feel of his lips brushing against her ear, and she wondered if she should tell him. If she should admit that she loved him, actually loved the infamous pirate with a girl in every port. Just thinking it sounded sad. She shook herself, ridding herself of dangerous thoughts and expressions of love.

She looked up when Barbossa fired a shot and distantly wondered why he was on the table. She rolled her eyes when he started shouting to the crowd. He was still good at laying it on thick. "It was the first court what imprisoned Calypso, and we will be the ones to set her free, and in her gratitude she will see fit to grant us boons," Barbossa said, as an explanation. Somehow, Anna didn't agree with him. She liked Tia, had thought of her as a friend, but she had seen the devotion to their enemy, to Jones. She knew if it came to it, Calypso would not pick them.

Jack looked up and said what some were thinking, and Anna thought his speech was becoming even less intelligible than before. "Whose boons? Your boons? Utterly deceptive twaddlespeak, says I," he said seriously. Anna was proud of herself for understanding him.

"If you have a better alternative, please, share," Barbossa said with a grin, waving him on. He obviously didn't expect a viable answer, but Jack smiled and moved on.

"Cuttlefish," he said proudly. Anna looked at him sharply, concerned for his sanity and suddenly, she wondered what had happened while she was gone. "Let us not, dear friends, forget our dear friends the cuttlefish. Flippant glorious little sausages. Pen 'em up together and they'll devour each other without a second thought. Human nature, isn't it?...or... or...fish nature," he said with a wave of his hands. He was traveling the room now, resting his hands on Mistress Cheng's shoulders and leaning close to her ear. "So yes, we could hole up here well provisioned and well-armed and half of us would be dead within the month, which seems grim to me any way you slice it," Jack said logically and Anna applauded him on the inside. He was even more brilliant than she remembered.

This didn't help her emotions towards him; it only made her more enamored with him and his mannerisms. That unstable brilliance was so fascinating she found herself absorbing everything he said like he was a God or something close to it. It made her feel weak and strong all at once. She brought herself back to reality as Jack spoke again.

"Or, as my learned colleague so naively suggests, we could release Calypso, and we can pray that she will be merciful," he said and gave a comically blunt face. "I rather doubt it."

She had to bite back a giggle.

"Can we in fact pretend that she is anything other than a woman scorned, like which fury hell hath no? We cannot. Res ipso loquitur tabula in naufragio," he spouted off a phrase in Latin that Anna knew to mean something close to 'the matter speaks for itself, Court of Shipwreck Cove.' Jack continued as if he had not just confounded half of the court with his hidden knowledge. "We are left with but one option. I agree with, and somehow, I _can_ believe I'm saying it, Captain Windsor, we must fight," he said, swinging his arm towards Anna with a grin.

"You've only ever run form a fight," Barbossa said skeptically, caution in his eyes. Jack looked as if he was personally offended.

"I have not!" he said back, almost childishly.

"Have too!"

"Have not!"

"Ye have too!"

"Have not!"

"Ye have too and ye know it!" Barbossa said, hoping to end the childish argument that the Court followed like a tournament.

"Have not, slander and calumny!" Jack shouted indignantly. "I have only ever embraced that oldest and noblest of pirate traditions. I submit here and now, that is what we all must do, we must fight...to run away," he said with a widening of his eyes, which somehow managed to convey sincerity.

"Aye!" Gibbs shouted in sync with Anna, faith in Jack and his words audible in their shouts. Half the Court raised their voices in agreement and Barbossa searched for a loophole. He smiled when he found one.

"As per the code, an act of war, and this be exactly that, can only be declared by the pirate king," he said with a pompous tilt of his head.

"You made that up!" Jack shouted, sounding more than a little miffed and Anna had the insane urge to ruffle his hair.

"Did I now? I call on Captain Teague, keeper of the code," Barbossa shouted, and the room fell into cryptic silence. Jack's eyes were blown wide with trepidation and something like fear. Anna's breath caught at the look on Jack's face. It couldn't mean anything good. The Court seemed to hold its breath as they waited for Captain Teague to enter.


	18. Chapter 18

**Hey I know I made you wait another day, and for that I do apologize. It's just this chapter was harder for me to write for some reason. Okay on another note, I feel like I haven't been getting very much response per chapter as I have the last one. I mean, I appreciate every single review, but if you haven't been, I would really really like you to. And I know I said I wouldn't be doing a second one…but…I think I will. It all depends on feedback. **

**-Han**

The moment seemed frozen to Anna, like ice they were waiting to melt and she was afraid to breathe. Afraid because it might shatter the ice and it would splinter outwards and suck her under into frozen waters and she wouldn't be able to breathe. She felt Jack move behind her and hide, peeking fearfully over her shoulder. No one spoke, and the silence seemed consuming and she didn't know pirates could control themselves for this long.

An Indian man stood up, decorations and accessories diminishing any threat he might have carried. He spoke for his Lord, who continued to be respectfully silent.

"SeSumbhajee proclaims this all to be folly! Hang the code! Who cares-" he was cut off by the sound of a shot and Anna couldn't look away as he fell to the ground, his eyes rolling as a trail of blood fell from the wound above his eye. His body hit the ground with a thump and no one wasted time on him, and Anna was reminded that they were all murderers. They may chase horizons for the sake of freedom, but they'd all killed and the loss of a life didn't mean all that much to those hardened by the rolling waves and the threat of the noose hovering around them. They stood alone.

Maybe she should too. Maybe she should stop chasing after Jack when he was built to be alone, like she was built to be alone. Built to run and sail and drink and live free, not bonded by something as stupid as love. And her love no less. Jack was the pirate with a woman in every port, she was stupid to think he would give that up for her.

She pulled herself from thoughts too dark to stay on, as the crowd's eyes turned to the stairs and the shadowed figure at the top of them, smoking gun in hand. He blew the smoke from it, and she watched it curl in the half-light and thought the man looked like a much weathered Jack. Her head tilted to the side and her mind refused to make the connection. As far as she was concerned, Jack was born from the froth of the sea.

"The Code is the law," the figure said, his voice rough and tumbled and seemed broken from too many years screaming orders on his ship. Her eyes were drawn to him and she wondered what stories he could tell her.

Captain Teague's steps were loud and echoing throughout the room; each movement like thunder ringing through her ears until he was right in front of her and her head was still tilted to the side, trying to decipher his weathered face. She moved delicately to the right of him, nodding respectfully in his direction and was surprised when he returned it. The kohl around his eyes made them look impossibly deeper and the deep lines on his face made her think of the wear of the wind and ocean spray. His movements were slightly unsteady, almost lethargic, but the tilt of his head made her think his mind was in the right place.

"You're in my way, boy," he said to Jack, who'd yet to move. Anna flicked her eyes between the two, shock coloring them and mixing with the blue-grey. Jack shouldn't have a father, she thought distantly. He was just supposed to _be_. She couldn't deny it when Jack obediently shifted out of the way, like a small child. She felt herself reaching out, wrapping her fingers around his sleeve and tugging him back to her.

"Is that your _father?_" she whispered in shock, her eyes wide and rapt on the older Captain. Jack followed her gaze and nodded; his eyes blank.

"Aye," he whispered, watching and waiting as if the man would shimmer and disappear.

"He's the keeper of the Code?"

"As set down by Morgan and Bartholomew," Jack answered softly, his eyes on the large leather-bound book that was being carried out by two elderly pirates. It was set down on the table in front of Teague and Anna realized it was locked. The Captain whistled and a scruffy looking mutt ran out with a ring of keys dangling from his mouth. She faintly recognized it as the dog they'd left on the beach of the Pelegostas, its dirty tail wagging brightly as they had sailed away.

"How did...?" Pintel asked, also recognizing the dog as it ran obediently to Teague.

"Sea turtles mate," the old Captain answered roughly, taking the keys and patting the mutt affectionately. Anna's eyes slid to Jack at the proclamation and she smiled half-heartedly.

"He's definitely your father," she whispered around her smile, and he noticed she'd yet to let go of his sleeve. He smiled down at her, amusement and squeezed her hand.

"Did you think I just appeared one day, full grown with a lust for rum and the sea?" he asked jokingly, watching her cheeks redden.

"No," she mumbled unconvincingly as Teague scanned the Code. Jack chuckled to himself, the sound vibrating through his chest and he thought it had been awhile since he'd really laughed.

"Barbossa is right," Captain Teague said, looking up from the scripting cursive of the Code. Anna sighed dejectedly, but Jack refused to give up. He released her hand and walked forward.

"Hang on a minute," he said, moving his father out of the way and scanning the code with wide eyes. "It shall be the duty of the king to declare war, parlay with said adversaries...fancy that," he said softly. Anna looked at him slowly, chewing her lip as she recalled stories of the Courts.

"There's not been a king since the first court, and that's not likely to change," she said, speaking up until her voice was heard throughout the room.

"Not likely," Teague agreed, looking back at her with a soft sort of smile. She shifted uncomfortably under his gaze and thought that his eyes seemed to pierce through her. He moved away, then, to sit in a large chair with a beautiful guitar on his lap. Anna listened to him play for a moment, watching his fingers make the instrument sing, and the music drifted through the air and her heart felt lighter.

"Why not?" Elizabeth asked from beside her and Anna was reminded of James and how she had to tell Elizabeth. The thought was almost too much and she didn't want to be the one to tell her. She would rather believe the man still alive, than repeat the news of his death and cement it into reality.

"Because the king is elected by popular vote," Gibbs said quickly, his eyes on his Captain. Jack was looking at Anna, fingering his beard slowly and thoughtfully.

"And each pirate only ever votes for hisself," Barbossa finished, seeming to end the conversation.

"I call for a vote!" Jack said brightly, a smile on his lips. Anna wondered what he was thinking, again taken back by the surge of raw intelligence in his eyes. He knew more than anyone gave him credit for, as he watched the Court with predatory eyes.

"I vote for Ammand, the corsair," Ammand voted, staring around the room as if begging someone to challenge him.

"Capitan Chevalle, the penniless French man," Chevalle said with a smile.

"SeSumbhajee votes for SeSumbhajee."

"Mistress Cheng."

"Gentleman Jocard."

It was her turn and Anna locked eyes with Jack, the question clear. He nodded once, hoping she understood the meaning behind it and she raised her eyes to the Court. "Anna Windsor."

A span of silence greeted her words as the other pirates in the room realized who she was. Looks of distrust mixed with appreciation and surprise were thrown her way until she thought she was drowning underneath their judgment. She held her breath and wondered if someone would shoot her and just be done with it. She wondered if, should she die, she wondered if Jack would ask Tia to bring her back, or if he would just move on. She liked to think he would at least mourn her, at least feel something at the loss of a friend. Since that was all she would ever be to him.

"Barbossa." The next vote broke the silence and they were moving on again, pushing forward and Anna finally let loose a breath, her lungs aching with fire for oxygen.

"Villanueva."

"Anna Windsor."

Her head snapped up, resting on a confident and almost pensive looking Jack, his relaxed position making her wonder if she'd misheard him. "Beg Pardon?" she said quickly, something close to terror rising in her eyes and she had never wanted to be royalty of any kind. The thought scared her and she wondered if she would become her father, cruel and unfeeling. She wondered if she would lose the lust for freedom under the burden of responsibility and she was losing it. Quickly. Rational thought seemed to spin away as Jack grinned at her.

"Don't look so surprised, love," he said with a chuckle. She narrowed her eyes at him and wondered if this was his Ace, his trick.

As if it were a secret queue, The Court erupted into chaos, screaming at her and at him until she wished she could hide away. Instead she forced her back to straight and told herself that she would show no fear. She couldn't be beaten by them. Jack looked unaffected, sending her a calm smile until she felt the tension melting from her shoulders and she wondered why she'd ever doubted him. She smiled back and fingered her sword gently.

"Am I to understand that you lot will not be keeping to the code, then?" Jack asked expectantly. Anna winced at the sound of a string breaking and that beautiful music halted. Silence engulfed the room for a moment and Anna could hear her heartbeat in her ears, that constant pounding a staccato beat of war drums.

"Very well, what say you Captain Windsor, King of the Brethren Court?" Mistress Cheng asked, standing finally and staring at Anna in a begrudgingly respectful way.

Anna's face hardened, drawing upon hidden reserves of authority she didn't even know she had. Her back straightened and she fixed the room with a cold stare, her men moved back slightly, remembering the way she had taken charge on her ship and knowing she should be respected.

"Prepare every vessel that floats," she said, her voice carrying across the silent pirates and Jack looked proud. "At dawn, we are at war."

She turned and walked back towards Jack, ignoring the hush of voices that grew as her back was turned. She looked up at the pirate, anxiety in her eyes.

"Was that okay?" she asked softly, her fingers brushing over the sword at her hip as though it gave her strength.

"That was perfect, love," he said with a grin. She smiled uneasily and was about to walk away when his look stopped her. It was unguarded, trusting. She allowed him to lead her to his father, the man now standing and regarding the approaching pair with something like amusement.

"Sir," she addressed him respectfully and blushed when he chuckled, waving her off lazily.

"My father was Sir, I'm Edward," he said with a grin and she could see gold caps and missing teeth. She smiled at the sight of his and nodded.

"Annie," she said, holding out her hand for him to shake.

"You got yourself a fine lass, here, Jack. Be sure you hold on to her," Teague said to his son while taking her hand in a firm grip. Her cheeks heated, her head ducking away from their piercing eyes and she wished she could just take it as a joke and move on, but her heart clenched at the thought. She had to force herself to remember that Jack didn't feel that way about her. Had to force herself not to hope. The thought itself was as alluring to her as the sea, and she wanted to dive below it and let the water and the dreams engulf her, until they mixed and she could breathe them in.

"I'm only a friend," she said finally, a shaky smile on her lips and she released his hand, turning and hurrying away, away from thoughts that would drown her and dreams she would choke on. Jack watched her go with a pain in his soul he could not identify.

His father said nothing as he turned back to him, only stared at him like he was the stupidest man he'd ever met, and maybe he was. Stupid because he never quite saw her, and stupid because he could never say what he wanted to. Stupid because he couldn't admit to himself what that feeling was in his chest because to him the words were a curse.

"What? You've seen it all, done it all, you survived. That's the trick, isn't it? To survive?" Jack asked and he wondered if he'd meant to live forever or to survive through the pain of loss and rejection and to survive through the happiness and the feelings. Feelings he wasn't accustomed to, growing in his chest like a parasite until looking at her meant thinking of her and thinking of her meant caring for her and caring for her meant fearing for her life and he never did that.

"It's not just about living forever, Jackie. The trick is, living with yourself, forever," he said softly, his eyes on Anna as she weaved through the crowd with her head down. Jack followed his line of vision and sighed, his eyes finding the floor.

Friends. Only friends. She'd said so herself.

"How's mum?" he asked, trying to rid himself of thoughts that could never be. Captain Jack Sparrow did not _feel _for any woman. Certainly not his best friend.

Teague rolled his eyes and raised a shrunken head for Jack's viewing. The younger man swallowed, memories of his mother swirling behind his eyes and he blinked to eradicate them, the thoughts too painful. And people wondered why his scarred heart was closed.

"She looks great," he managed to mumble, the nervous need to hide the pain making his voice higher. His father gave him a small smile and tilted his head back towards the direction Anna had gone in.

"Jackie," he said, sounding for once like a father and Jack was listening. "Some treasure…you can't steal," he intoned, wisdom dripping from his tongue. "You only have to ask for it, and maybe she'll hand it over."

"Ask for what?"

"Her heart, Jackie."


	19. Chapter 19

**Am I a tease? Mayyyybe. I love you guys, but this time round, I am asking for five reviews, just five. I'm sad to inform you that a lot of the time, I don't even get that much. so please do me the favor and let me know what you think. Please. Also HUGELY IMPORTANT. if I get….forty reviews by the end of this whole shebang, and we have a good many chapters until the end, I will do a fourth book. It will focus on that pirate boy we heard about, Anna's mom, and maybe some Blackbeard. It'll stick loosely to the movie, with a lot more subplot. **

**-Han**

Anna wasn't sure where she was going, but eventually she found herself in a long hallway, Elizabeth at the end of it and she was rushing forward, trying to stop her.

"Elizabeth!" she called out, praying the woman would stop, but still surprised when she did. The other woman stared at her blankly.

"What? Are you going to hit me again?" she asked, her brown eyes sad. "I would deserve it," she admitted. Anna shook her head, the emotions from her talk with Teague still swirling in her chest and she tried to lock them back.

"I made a promise to Norrington," she said softly, her eyes pleading when Elizabeth looked to shut down. "He took the heart, got his job back," she said softly, catching her arm when she started to walk away. "No, wait. H-He gave up his life to save me, and in some indirect way, to save you. He really did love you, Elizabeth," she said with a watery smile. She turned to leave the woman in thought when she spoke again.

"Why did you tell me that?" she asked, and it sounded like there was accusation beneath the words.

"Because he was dying, and I wasn't the woman he wanted," she said and there was an empty space after her words, like she would fill it with 'I never am'. Elizabeth seemed to understand and fixed her with a hard stare.

"I could never have been there for him," she said finally. Her blonde hair fell into her eyes for a moment and Anna brushed a hand through her own.

"I couldn't save him," she mumbled dejectedly.

"You cannot save everyone," Elizabeth responded and there was an edge to it.

Anna looked up and her eyes narrowed, blue becoming almost grey and an angry blush rose to her cheeks. "He had nothing to do with your father's death. Did you really think so little of him?" she asked.

"You've seen all he's done. He's no better than Jack," Elizabeth said darkly.

Anna took a step back, her boots clicking on the hardwood and echoing around them. "What's wrong with Jack?" she asked softly, eyes unguarded and she wished she could reassemble her defenses, but they seemed to be slipping through her fingers.

Elizabeth looked surprised. "He's a pirate, Annabelle."

She must be the only person to still call her Annabelle. It was so formal, distant. Like their relationship and she wondered why it was they were never close. Circumstance and petty words and walls made it hard for her to break through, but maybe she never wanted to. Elizabeth was easy to blame and wrong words hit Anna's chest harder than the other woman intended. They were always taken to heart and some days all she wanted was someone to blame. Both chose the other and it was easy.

"And a good man," Anna said with a small smile on her lips. Elizabeth sighed, as if speaking to a small child.

"I know how you feel for him," Elizabeth said, recalling her hoarse declaration in Tia's hut and the guilt that had swelled in her chest. "But you cannot expect him to change his ways for you," she said logically, no hint of bitterness in her voice and Anna wished she wasn't telling the truth.

"It isn't like that," she tried to say, wishing her voice was stronger, was filled with more truth.

"Then what is it like?" Elizabeth asked, and Anna hated that pitying look that rested in her eyes.

"I-It's nothing," she whispered, her head beginning to hurt with the force of keeping back her rejection and sadness and love and fear.

"Right," Elizabeth said brightly. "You function perfectly the way you are."

Anna could tell the other woman was trying to be good natured and kind, was trying to reach out and she wished it didn't hurt so much. Anna nodded dumbly and mumbled something about meeting with Barbossa later, turning and walking back down the hallway until she was away from the woman. She rushed through webs of interconnecting hallways, all once ships, until she was totally alone. She collapsed against a wall and slid down it, until her head could rest against her knees.

She breathed deeply, her breath coming out shaky and unstable, her hands quaking as they raked through her hair and her chopsticks fell to the ground. She left them there, looking up the ceiling with watery eyes and trying to find some form of control. Anna could feel the confliction in her chest and the pounding of her head and all she wanted was to be loved.

All she wanted was for once in her life, to be cared for. Not treated like she was special or regarded as royalty. She wanted for a rough hand to trail across her cheek and for the man belonging to it to tell her she was beautiful. She wanted eyes to look into her soul and like what they found. She wanted soft words and even softer touches. She wanted kisses that drew her soul out of hiding and made her feel like she did when she was at sea. She wanted love that made her _feel_.

And she hated that she fell for the one man who couldn't be able to give it to her. She knew what Jack was. He was a pirate in the blood and would never be separated from that. And she didn't want him to be, didn't want to be herself. But she wished being a pirate didn't mean being alone. She'd been alone for long enough.

Anna's head dropped to rest against her knees and she wondered what anyone would think if they found her like that. She was supposed to be the King, supposed to be stronger than the mighty, sharper than a sword, freer than birds, and willing to chase any horizon. But love was too daunting an adventure. Too big to face, when she knew heartbreak was in the cards and she didn't want to play this game and risk the pain.

She didn't want to risk losing Jack, losing him like she already had once. Time without him was eternal and she didn't think she could handle any form of separation again. She wasn't as strong as he thought her to be. He still didn't know how often she'd begged for death in the middle of the night, awaking from fits and nightmares of white water and Leviathans and the distance between her and him. He still didn't know of all the days she had no faith and how Will would have to talk her out of that dark place inside of herself, that place that clawed at her chest and begged to be let loose on the rest of her.

Jack didn't know how empty she'd felt, just a hollow being with a heartbeat, and sometimes she doubted she even had that. That beating in her chest was just her pain rhythmically making itself known. Jack didn't know how many times she woke up already crying, water dripping from her eyes and his name dripping from her lips.

Her eyes scrunched shut and she battled back emotions she'd told herself she'd locked away. Feelings she told herself she would never feel again. She wasn't the same shattered girl he'd left behind, white water echoing in her heartbeats. She wasn't broken and begging to be fixed. She wasn't going to suffer in silence, or let herself be stepped on.

She shook her head, chasing away fears and pain, standing slowly with the help of the wall bracing her. She took a deep breath when she stood tall, her ribs pushing outward on her leather armor. She rolled her shoulders and felt the familiar weight of her weapons.

She was stronger than that girl now, stronger than the one Jack left behind. She was the Pirate King. She wasn't shattered or broken or silent or fearful. She was better than that.

Her face hardened, eyes masking over in determination and strength. She wouldn't fall again, wouldn't break like a girl from high society. She was a pirate, chasing horizons and freedom and she couldn't be knocked down by doubt.

She walked down empty hallways until she found the docks, darkness seeming to suffocate the cluttered cove until it was hard to breathe, but she marched on. Each step a signal to those around her and some even bowed when she passed. A smirk rose to her lips and her hand rested on her sword, her movements becoming more assured as she walked.

She passed the Pearl with a long glance, wondering if Jack was there, if Tia was. She wanted to talk to the woman, explain. She wanted the Goddess to still think of her as an ally. But maybe her position would cause her friend to stare at her with nothing but hate.

The night was cold, as she stood before the gangplank of the Pearl, her eyes tracing the lines of the ship as if she could memorize it perfectly. She didn't move to step onto it, her own ship docked further down the line of ships. She wasn't sure how long she stood there, the wind flowing around her and she could breathe in the salt of the sea.

"You just gonna stand there?"

She smiled at the gruff voice, relishing the shivers it sent rolling down her back. She looked to her left, smiling at Jack as he approached.

"Am I still allowed on?" she asked, her eyes flitting back to the place she called home. It seemed like so long since they'd been on together, so long since they'd had no one around them.

"As long as I'm Captain," he answered charmingly, holding out his arm for her to take. She took it slowly, walking with him to the ship. "And how is the King on this fine night?" he asked with a grin.

"Ready to kill her ex-fiancé," she said with a smirk. He chuckled lightly, leading her to the helm, where both leaned against the wheel and looked up at the stars. "You couldn't tell by the sky," she said suddenly. "You couldn't tell our world might end tomorrow."

"That's because it won't, love," Jack said wisely, tracing the heavens with his dark eyes. "How do you know?" she asked, and for once, it was Jack's turn to impart some deep reserves of wisdom and thought.

"Because, you and I, we're better than those uniformed gits," he said with a chuckle. "Do you really think they can stand up to us? Do you really think that we can't talk our way out of it, fight our way out?"

Anna didn't say anything and he sighed, deciding to continue and he wondered why words always seemed to escape him when they were close.

"You know somethin', love?" he asked, waiting for her steady gaze to continue. "You know why we'll win? Because we have something worth fightin' for. Them? They fight in strict regiments with muskets held at attention and crisp uniforms drowning out a man's lust for freedom. We let it run free through our veins because we know it makes us stronger. They fight for pay and for country; we fight for the next adventure and our lives. We have the wind on our side and the strength of freemen on our backs. We have hearts that beat as one for one purpose, while theirs beat for their own interests. And, love? We have each other to rely on, when they have no one."

There was a pause where Jack's chest moved up and down and he hoped he'd said the right thing. "Jack?" Anna said softly, her eyes clearing as if she had been somewhere far away. "There was exactly what I needed to hear," she whispered.

"I aim to please, love," he said with a proud tilt of his chin and she had to dispel images of her lips tracing his jaw line, of his hands resting at her hips and cradling her close to him. She blinked slowly, the thoughts blowing away with the night's wind.

"Jack?"

"Aye?" he asked, his eyes on the stars again, like they held the answers.

"Do you have someone to fight for?" she asked, her eyes flicking between him and the sky and she meant anyone. A love, his father, a friend. It didn't matter, she only wondered if he thought about another. If he was really as removed from feeling as a pirate was supposed to be, or if he mingled the two worlds until it was okay to feel. Okay to love another in any way that is forbidden when chasing a horizon. If he really stood so alone.

Jack looked down at her when he was sure she wasn't looking and his answer was slow and hesitant, as if he was letting her see some secret in his soul no one but her could see. As if he were showing her what it was to be a man, and a pirate. Where the two should be separate, but to him only made up the fragmented pieces of his heart and stitched it back together. As if he were showing her that he could still feel, even if he denied it and often didn't want to.

He still felt the spray of the sea on his skin and the warming of his heart when he spoke of his mother. He still felt the heat of a woman's skin and the yearning for something greater than a night to enjoy it. He felt the call of the sea and knew he should stand alone, knew he was a pirate in the blood and a man at heart. A man who thought of his parents sometimes, and of his past, and of his best friend.

"Aye, I reckon I do."


	20. Chapter 20

**Hey, I'm so sorry I couldn't upload yesterday, I had a project due. I love you guys so so much, and I will try very hard to upload tomorrow – but I have like four major tests in the next two days. Sorry!**

**-Han**

Anna stood tall on the Pearl, having relinquished control of the Hai Peng to Tai Hung for the battle. He had accepted it graciously, his face set hard in respect and responsibility. It was harder for her to give up the vessel, if only for the day, than she thought it would be. She and it were inexplicably tied, now, joined at the mast in some bond only fellow Captains could comprehend.

But today she stood on the Pearl, the helm a balcony for her to see the crew. Jack behind her with his head high, a coy smile on his lips. The fog rolling in around them was suffocating, heavy and thick until all of them found breathing difficult. Found it straining on their lungs. Anna faced away from the wind, towards the impending battle, her hair blown lazily around her and she didn't bother with pinning it back, not today. Today it was free. The Sparrow charm rested on her skin and she smiled at the weight of it.

She knew she looked more provocative than any of the other men were used to, her poet shirt exposed bare shoulders and lightly tanned skin, the neckline lower than usual, showing her necklace proudly. Her corset made it so only the top part of her shirt was shown, the rest molding into black leather armor, laced loose enough to let her move easily. Kohl lined her eyes and made them smoky, as if she had become part of the grey rolling waves. Her boots were higher than normal, the heel adding to her short height until she was almost as tall as Jack.

Men had given her lingering glances as she passed, her hair falling around her face in free waves, not silky by any means, but they didn't care. She'd felt like royalty, for the moments their eyes had stayed on her and maybe that was okay. Jack had looked over her the longest, his warm eyes seeming to darken on her, but she didn't ask why. Didn't question the way he looked at her because it was Jack, and she never understood him.

Now she stood with her hand on her sword, hip cocked to the side and eyes on the horizon, the blue reflecting grey to the world. Others had thought she'd changed from the girl they'd seen in the Court. Now her back was impossibly straight and the tilt of her head demanded both attention and respect. She'd become something greater, something they grudgingly respected.

"The enemy's here!" Marty shouted, drawing the crowd's attention to where Anna's eyes already sat. The flag ship sailed out of the arms of fog, rocking gently on the waves. Anna did not join in the shouts of war, did not raise her voice to mingle with the others and call attention. She only waited with Jack at the helm. "Let's take her!" he shouted louder, his fist balling and a rousing agreement rolled with it.

Silence engulfed them as the rest of the armada followed, each ship another way to die, carrying men that would silence them eternally with a shot. Anna's breathing deepened, and she was surprised to say she was not afraid, of anything. Not afraid to face Beckett and not afraid to take on an army. Because Jack had been right, they had something worth fighting for.

The crew did not seem to agree and angered, accusing glances were thrown at all of them. Captains of other ships looked nervously at the sight before them, eyes blown wide with trepidation and fear.

Cotton's parrot seemed to mirror their thoughts as it flew from its owner's shoulder and squawked loudly for all to hear, "Abandon ship! Abandon ship!"

Anna thought she could hear their heartbeats, frenzied and too fast, pumping furiously towards death, racing. She could almost feel their blood rushing through their veins like they could not carry life through the body fast enough and they had to feel alive before they died. They had to feel every beat and brush of their bodies before they stopped rising and falling rhythmically. Before their chests stopped expanding and red stained their shirts and the deck before them and the sea itself.

She could feel men's stares of hatred but she was unaffected, her own heart beating lethargically, awaiting the inevitable rush of adrenaline through her system that would send her spiraling into movement. Until rational thought as only a memory and instinct ruled her world, driven by the point of her sword and the fluid movements of those around her. Until she wasn't a single, individual mind, but a part of the sea, roiling waves bending her body to move with the ocean of dangers around her.

Until the only thought in her mind was surviving and seeing Jack again, because the man could never be fully removed from her mind. Could never be eradicated completely from her heart when it beat to the sound of his name. When her soul knew him by the feel of his eyes on her. A wistful smile rose to her face in the center of anarchy and mutiny at the thought of the man and she could feel him looking at the back of her neck like it was a puzzle he couldn't piece together.

And as men pressed in on them, mutiny in their minds and she needn't remind them of their place in Hell, Jack's eyes turned nervous. The brown losing their darkness and becoming withdrawn as he faced the past and he didn't want to be kicked off his home again. He believed they could win and she could feel it, but they were far away from real land, and he doubted his luck could pull him through. So he gazed back at the crew with a sheepish smile and a shrug.

"Parlay?"

Xx

The sad spit of land they rowed to was nothing but a sandbar, held above water by tide alone. Barbossa walked on her right, Jack on her left, her steps assured in between them and they walked like they owned the world. Elizabeth had wanted to come, but was held back by Gibbs when Jack and Anna refused her.

Anna moved slowly, a coy smile on her lips that quickly erupted into a giggle at the sight of Jones, in two buckets of water to keep him from land. Her mask of authority broke at the sight and all of a sudden she was a child again, unintentionally mocking the Captain before her and she could feel Jack chuckle under his breath. Under the glare of Davy Jones, she managed to restrain herself, a sparkle behind her eyes that the immortal sea Captain was not used to seeing. She was different with the eccentric pirate by her side.

Barbossa ignored all but the last man, taller than Beckett on the end of the line, a guilty look in his eyes.

"You be the cur that led these wolves to our door," he said darkly to Will Turner, the glare strong in his gaze and he could see Will swallow thickly. The younger man refused to meet Anna's eyes, afraid they would be accusing, unfeeling, numb to his skin like she was after Jack had died.

He couldn't see the way her gaze had softened with the memory of his father and her mind raced ahead to plan something. To help Will. She didn't blame him, or want to blame him; he'd done what he needed to do and she wasn't entirely sure she wouldn't have done the same.

"Don't blame Turner, he was merely the tool of your betrayal. If you wish to see its grand architect, look to your left," Beckett said calmly, staring past Anna with blank eyes she found infuriating. Suddenly she was a thousand times happier with her choice to be a pirate, it was like she was made for the life. The sea must mix with blood in her veins it felt so at home to be on the water, like she had been away for so long and was returning home.

His words registered in the three pirate's brains and all of them turned to their left, heads swiveling to see what he meant. Jack was the last on the left, his head turned any way until he looked back into Anna's questioning eyes, trust mixing with desperation.

"My hands are clean in this…figuratively," he said with a glance at his dirty hands, calluses caked with dirt and sand and gunpowder. Anna nodded, taking his word on instinct and she would love to have no doubts about him, but the thought always lingered in the back of her mind. That coy, charming smile hid the calculating mind she'd come to love and admire and she was terrified he would turn it on her one day.

"My actions were my own and to my own purpose. Jack had nothing to do with it," Will spoke up bravely, finally locking eyes with Anna and he was stunned by the acceptance there. He felt his heartbeat slowing and his breath coming easier, so much easier. A weight was lifted from his shoulders as he realized that Anna still cared about him, was still the sister he knew she was at heart. Still close to him.

"Well spoken! Listen to the tool," Jack insisted with a wide grin, pointing at him quickly. His eyes flicked to Anna but hers were still on her brother.

"Will," she said softly, encouragingly. "Please know, that I will do anything to help you with your cause," she said, watching his eyes blow wide and shocked and happy. "I do not think the cause is lost yet," she said with a grin that said she was planning something.

"A cause is never lost, as long as there are fools left to fight for it," he said with a smile.

"I suppose we are fools, then," she replied strongly.

"If Turner was not acting on your behalf, then how did he come to give me this?" Beckett cut across them and raised Jack's compass. "You made a deal with me, Jack, to deliver the pirates, and here they are. Don't be bashful, step up, claim your reward," he said, tossing Jack the compass.

He caught it deftly and stared at Jones with something like fear in his eyes, mixing beneath the rough exterior like he could hide it from them all. But Anna saw through them, and she wished she could reach out to him.

"Your debt to me is still to be satisfied. One hundred years in service aboard the Dutchman. As a start," Davy Jones said pompously, a smile on his twisted face.

"That debt was paid, mate," Jack said quickly, indifference etched onto his face until not even Anna could tell what he was thinking.

"With help," Anna added quickly, her eyes turning hard again as she remembered what Elizabeth had done. She wanted to mend things with the woman but her pride and her pain would not let her, too many years of piled on blame and issue and every moment around her was uncomfortable and she knew they would never be close. They would never be what a part of her had always wished, best friends. She would never have a girl to rely on like so many high society women did.

She had Will and Jack and the sea and maybe that really was enough for her.

"You escaped!" Jones pushed.

"Technically his debt was to be taken to the Locker, which he was. You left the loophole wide open, mate," Anna said quickly, a grin on her lips as the Captain's eyes grew murderous.

"Precisely, mate," Jack agreed heartily, a grin on his lips. Anna's grin faltered and her head tilted to the side as Jones spoke again.

"You are no better than your mother," he hissed, so low he couldn't be sure if he even said it. Jack froze, his eyes flicking back to her and he felt the need to lean closer to her, letting his fingers slide over her arm.

As if he'd started time again, she was in motion, pulling him sharply to the side for them to talk, her head leaning in. "Jack, how long would it take you to get out of the Dutchman's brig?" she asked quickly, her eyes flicking back to Jones.

"Love, didn't you hear-" he cut himself off at the look in her eyes. It was the look her acquired when a plan came to him, one sure to be a success and she looked so sure. No chance of failure. He considered the question and nodded slowly. "Not too long," he said finally. "Why?"

"We need to get the heart without Will jeopardizing it," she spoke quickly. "He'll try to stab it and I refuse to take him away from Elizabeth. I don't know what we'll do yet, but he just can't, Jack," she said softly.

"I have a few ideas for that, love," he said, his eyes looking removed, faraway and hiding from her and she felt like she was losing him. Losing the only chance she had to tell him how she felt, to tell him that she loved him like she love the horizon and like she loved her star. Loved every star because they were all important and they were all a story.

Instead she put her hand on his arm and squeezed. "You are not doing that," she hissed, her eyes dark and strong. "I won't give you up either," she said and was proud when a light returned.

"Then we shall simply do what we must," he said after a moment, looking over her strong eyes and flushed cheeks and wishing he could reach out. Brush fingers across her skin and trail a kiss across her lips like they were sacred and he was a martyr.

"I need to trust you, Jack," she said softly, moving to stand flush against him until she had to look up to meet his eyes. She tried not to fall into them, and be consumed by the darkness that resided within and she thought it would be comforting to fall. She thought the silky blackness would blanket her heart and it would not be wounded.

"You know, love, if any other person were to tell me that I would tell them that I was a dishonest pirate," he said slowly, and her eyes flickered and went south, finding the sand below her feet and she prayed to any God or Goddess that would listen that the next words out of his mouth were ones she could handle.

The moment was drawn out and frozen and she could hear water lapping at their spit of land and Beckett calming Jones behind them and she could feel Will's eyes on her back. She could feel her heartbeat in her ears and it stuttered when he spoke again, that rough timbre striking shivers down her back.

"But I think it's safe to assume that you are not any other person."


	21. Chapter 21

**Hey, sorry this is late and a bit short, but I wanted to cut it here, so I could make the next chapter really long and awesome. I love you guys, and please review. Five and I'll upload tomorrow. By the way, HAPPY HOLIDAYS! school is officially out for me so the holidays have begun!**

**-Han**

Anna stood back in the line, her eyes on Will. He thought they looked grey, like the fog that still consumed the British armada, like the sea after a storm. He wondered what she had been talking about, when her eyes had misted over and she had quickly wrapped her arms around Jack, the action so fast he almost missed it, but he was sure Beckett hadn't. The short man's face had become impossibly harder, glaring in their direction as they broke apart quickly and anyone but Jack could see the love in her eyes.

But now they stood a foot apart, Barbossa on Anna's other side, all three staring in front of them like they had never moved. Will thought she looked beautiful, an edge about her that made her seem more alive than he'd ever seen. More free. He was proud to be her brother, and ashamed he'd betrayed her. Proud and impossibly happy she had decided to support him. He couldn't ask for any more than that and he knew it.

"I propose an exchange," Anna voiced, drawing Will from his thoughts and his face crumpled into confusion. "Will leaves with us, and you can have Jack," she said calmly, her voice so unaffected Will didn't believe her.

"What?" he questioned, shock coloring his warm brown eyes as they met hers. Her expression screamed for him to trust her and he nodded slowly. "Done," he said slowly, as if wondering how the words would taste in his mouth.

He was even more surprised when Jack nodded. "Done," he agreed, his eyes shifting trustingly to Anna. Will didn't think he could be any more surprised, his world was changing too quickly for him to keep up and Jack wasn't supposed to trust anyone.

"Done," Beckett agreed, a coy smile on his lips and it didn't seem to matter that Anna and Jack were planning something. As far as he was concerned, he'd won. Things were playing out the way he wanted and he could see victory in his sights.

"Jack is one of the nine pirate lords, you have no right-" Barbossa started, but she cut him off, her head tipping to the side.

"King," she reminded, that same smile on her lips Will remembered she would wear when she was about to beat him in one of their sparring sessions. The way she would move catlike around him and smile like he was a piece of meat and he would have to remind himself to keep his hand steady on his blade. The way she would move for hours afterwards, like everything was a duel.

"And I can only humbly serve," Jack said with a low bow, taking off his hat in respect. Barbossa took the opportunity to move faster than Anna thought he could with more grace than she'd ever seen. The move was fluid, like the sea on a calm day swirling around rocks in the harbor at Port Royal. He drew his sword and spun slicing it through the air and Anna thought it made a sound like it was singing.

Jack's piece of eight was cut cleanly from the front of his bandanna, falling into the sand with a clink and Anna wondered how he'd never tried to sell the little coin off. Jack the monkey rushed over, picking the beads up in his small hands and rushing back to Barbossa, climbing up to his shoulder and attempting to chew on the strand.

"If you be sayin' something, I might be sayin' something as well," Barbossa said, as if he and Jack had already started a conversation, and with the way they were looking at each other, maybe they had. It took a moment for Anna to remember that Barbossa was his first mate, once upon a time.

They seemed to carry on the conversation with only eye contact for a moment, and then Jack smiled grimly. "First to the finish then?" he asked his former enemy, a faraway look in his eyes and a slow smile.

The other Captain only nodded, a ghost of a grin around the edges of his mouth as Jack slowly and carefully traded places with Will, each step like a dance around each other and Anna thought it was programmed in the Captain to move like he was fighting. Like he was engaged in that archaic dance that was swordplay.

And then, finally he stood next to Jones, a mask of fear in place and only Anna could tell it was mostly fake, the currents of panic beneath real and the whole of calculating and trust in her overpowering that. But Beckett had to think he was winning, and the pompous tilt of his head said he did.

Will stood beside her, so close she could feel his body heat and maybe it was his way of holding her hand like they would when she took him through Port Royal when he was still a boy. And he would cling to her like she was the mother he had lost and she would return the pressure like she could read his mind, and something he wondered if she could. But now they were grown and neither could lean on the other, so he got as close as he could, until she could smell home in Will's scent beside her.

Jack looked across the empty space as if it were the span of oceans and wished he could say something to her. Say something important and real and maybe something forbidden and it would drip from his tongue like a song and maybe she would sing it on her way back to his ship. But he only gazed at her with sad eyes and wondered if caring for her meant he was tied down. He didn't think so, he thought he was still free like he was born to be and like she was born to be and they were both pirates. And he could be alone and he could care for her at once.

"Do you fear death?" Jones asked him lowly, hissing into his ear and Jack didn't really hear the question. The last word was something different, something too deep to consider and it was too big for him to take on. Too big for him to face. The last word was something huge and different and he didn't want to be weak. He didn't want to consider the possibility that he could feel for someone at all, much less the depth of the word Jack was considering. He refused to think it, and he would never say it. Speaking it would be making it real, even if it wasn't and he couldn't bring himself to admit he had a heart. Had a piece of him that could feel beyond lust and love of the sea.

"You have no idea," he whispered, admitting softly the reserves of a soul too marred for him to claim as his own and the world could believe he didn't have one.

Beckett stared down Anna with no remorse in his eyes, having apparently decided that she wasn't worth the inevitable hit to his career, and he would rather claw his way to the top than put up with her. She stared back at her with a fire he found deplorable in women, and he couldn't help the condescending smirk that rose to his face.

"Advise your brethren, you can fight and all of you will die, or you can not fight in which case only most of you will die," he said with disdain, looking down on her and she knew it. She only smiled in response.

"And I wonder what my father will say," she said with contempt, watching as Beckett's eyes darkened and he looked like he might step forward. Might strike her across the face like he had dreamed of doing ever since he'd gotten word she'd gone back on their deal. Ever since his opportunity had closed in on itself.

"You have chosen your fate," he hissed, preparing the lie he would tell her grandfather, who cared for her enough to merit a lie. Her father would get the truth and he would probably rejoice in it, in knowing that his bastard child was no longer a problem. That any links to her mother were dead and gone and burned and no one would ever know. Would never know that their future king could be hung for his crimes.

"And so you have chosen yours. We will fight, and you will die," she promised, her eyes dark on the man before her. She turned, casting only a side glance at Jack and moving back with assured steps to the dingy, her shoulders tense as she felt the three stares boring into her back.

"King?" Will asked, once they were out of earshot and he was looking at her steadily, with trust.

"Pirate King of the Brethren Court. Thanks to Jack," she said with a soft sort of smile as they walked beneath the beating sun, bathing them in heat until she wished she could run into the waves to cool off.

"Maybe he does know what he's doing," Will said with a boyish grin and she knew he meant more than that. He meant his thanks and his appreciation for sticking by him when he wasn't even sure it would work. He was telling her everything he couldn't say with Barbossa next to them and a war ahead.

He was surprised when Anna grew softer beside him, as if reflecting on some deep reserve of her soul and he was getting the chance to see it. "I think this time he does," she whispered. Admitting something to Will she'd barely admitted to herself, something she wished she never had to consider. That Jack might betray her. Might be in it for his own ends and she only hoped that when the time came, she could work with what he gave her, and she could live on free and be close to him. "And that's what worries me."


	22. Chapter 22

**I know, I know, it's been a few days…but ya know, holiday season and all. Thank you to the reviewers, you mean so much to me and everything you say is taken completely to heart. I love all of you. Okay, in case you didn't know…we're 23 reviews away from ahem THE FOURTH INSTALLMENT. if ya want it, REVIEW. all my love ;)**

**-Han**

Jack rested in the Dutchman brig with a low sigh, thinking about how Anna must have been there only a few days before. He wondered if she stood in against the cell wall or only braced her arms against the bars because she was afraid of what that slime was on the metal. He wondered when he should get out, when he should do what she asked, and if he should at all. He was still a pirate, after all.

He sighed loudly when he realized he was being watched by two copies of himself. This time they were full sized, not resting on his shoulder like they had when he was trying to figure out how to get them out of the Locker. It had picked away at what little sanity he had and was proud of, leaving him a shell of insanity and rum. And then Anna's voice had brought him back from oblivion and he remembered the way the him on his right shoulder had practically skipped at the sound of her voice. It was embarrassing.

He rolled his eyes and turned to face the mirrors of himself and they looked condescendingly back at him, as if they expected more of the Captain. Distantly, he wondered if it was odd that his other self's were disappointed in him. He was actually proud of himself; he hadn't tried to swim away when rowing back to the Dutchman, and he had retained his dignity enough to not say goodbye to Anna.

"Bravo! You've successfully arrived aboard the Flying Dutchman as per the overall scheme," The first replica said condescendingly.

"Oh, yes, chapeau, mate. Except for this little sojourn in the brig, everything's like clockwork," The second one chimed in, looking to be close to clapping at him patronizingly. He felt like he was being confronted by his father, only better looking.

"Oh, but don't forget the lovely Annie wanted him here," The first added, a predatory look in his eyes. "Better work quick on that one, mate, or she'll slip away…"

"And you'll still be here," The second Jack continued. "Wishing you had said something…just a bit…sooner."

"Like before your soul was shanghaied by the Dutchman," The first one spoke again, and Jack wondered distractedly if they'd rehearsed this in some untouched corner of his erratic mind. He didn't think he would like where they were taking this.

"Or maybe he will tell her, ever considered that course, mate?" The second asked the first, almost completely ignoring him now. His eyes rolled again, annoyance beginning to creep into his system, but at least they were taking up time he would have spent being a romantic and thinking of her.

"And then what, Jackie? Live happily ever after? Sail the seas until your poor heart finally capsizes, never to beat again, and little Annie will be left all alone," The first one said softly.

"Or she dies first, and then you live the rest of your life with no taste for women, treasure, who knows…maybe not even rum," The second said with genuine sadness.

"Go away," Jack groaned finally, dropping his head onto the bars in frustration.

"Back to the Locker?" The first one questioned, coming slightly closer to him with a stumble.

"But without you, Jackie?"

"Or Annie?"

His stomach lurched when he heard the sickening crunching sounds of the third replica of himself pulling away from the wall, sea-life spilling onto the deck along muscle and sinew. The final figment of himself was grey, decaying in almost all places, eyes nearly vacant. He scratched absently at his head, a pensive look on his rotting face. He reached further back with a near skeletal hand, and took out his brain. The large organ fit easily in his hand as he held it in front of his face, looking at it like it would tell him all the answers.

"Stab the heart, and live forever, as captain of the Flying Dutchman. See Anna every ten years, you both live forever," he said slowly, his voice hollow and weak. "Then again, if you're in the brig, who's to stab the heart?"

"It does put immortality a bit out of reach, among other things," The second Jack said logically, inclining his head towards Jack as if he should already know this. But in retrospect, didn't he? Shouldn't he know everything they were telling him? His head was beginning to hurt.

He glared over his shoulder as the first figment of himself reached into his braids and pulled out a peanut.

"Peanut," The first said proudly, holding the thing up in victory. Jack's head hit the bars again, and he thought it would be a long journey.

Xx

"We'll use the Black Pearl as a flagship to lead the attack," Anna said sternly as she trapped across the deck of the Pearl, her hand at her sword. Elizabeth and Will trailed just behind her, trying to keep their eyes from drifting to each other. Anna had purposefully looked away when they climbed back aboard, letting them embrace and whisper to each other like the lovers they were. She knew Will had told Elizabeth what she had done, just by the sad gazes the other woman gave her, trying to offer awkward comfort.

Now the two flanked her and she wondered when things had changed so quickly, changed so much. Her steps were filled with authority, something she had convinced herself she would never attain. Something she had never wanted.

"Will we, now?" Barbossa asked condescendingly, gesturing to Pintel and Ragetti as they rose form below decks, Calypso bound in ropes between them. Anna froze, and started up again, her eyes fierce and fiery.

"Let her go!" she snarled, rushing forward until she stood in front of Barbossa. "You have no right!"

"Apologies, your majesty! Too long me fate has not been in my own hands - no longer," he said with equal hatred, reaching out to snatch Sao Feng's necklace from her. She jerked away, her hand gripping it tightly.

She pushed around him, only half aware that the crew had captured Will and Elizabeth, holding them back roughly. She ignored everyone around her, moving assuredly until she stood directly in front of the woman she once knew as Tia. Once knew as the voodoo woman with a sad locket and a hut of body parts. She thought if she had only tried looking hard enough, she would have seen the raw power behind the woman's eyes, like she did now.

"Calypso," she breathed in greeting, trying not to look hurt at the glare the Goddess sent her. Her eyes dropped downward. "I am so sorry, I did not mean to betray you," she said softly, looking anywhere but at the woman in front of her and she knew that others were listening to her. "But I have to do this to save this way of life, to save piracy in its purest form. The love of the sea, of you, runs in these people's veins, and I cannot let them be deprived of the chance to chase horizons."

"And what of my own chance?" Calypso asked harshly, speaking up and glaring at the woman who betrayed her, who went the way of the Court.

Anna was silent a long moment, gazing into the woman's eyes as if she could decode the sea within them, learn the patterns of never ending waves and tides. Her head tipped to the side, her hand squeezing around her piece of eight.

"Is it what you want?" she asked quietly, her eyes wide and sad. "If you want to be set free, I will not keep it from you, from him," she said softly.

Calypso stared at the woman in shock, confusion in the line of her body as she looked back into eyes the color of her home. The moment hung between them and others of the crew held their breath in anticipation. Anna didn't move, didn't breathe, didn't even think. The consequences meant nothing, were too distant to consider. All that mattered was doing right by the Goddess she considered a friend.

When Calypso nodded, hesitant movement of her head up and down, Anna stood straighter, ripping the necklace from her chest in a simple movement. Her arm extended, dropping it quickly into the wooden bowl. Her eyes never left the woman, the Goddess.

"Then it will be done," she whispered. "I only ask that you give Jack a chance," she said softly. The woman in front of her was overcome by a softness she had only seen rarely.

"You are strange, my child, stranger than I had thought," Calypso said with something like wonder in her eyes, as if she was a puzzle. Anna shrugged, a light look coming to her eyes.

"So I've been told." She looked to Barbossa and frowned. "Are the bonds necessary?" She asked, authority laced in her voice and within moments they were dropped, and Calypso stood strong. "I trust you can handle yourself," she said with a grin.

"And you as well. Good luck, child. You will need it in the coming times," The Goddess imparted softly. Anna nodded slowly, hesitating before she moved back and Calypso seemed to understand the question in her eyes. The voodoo woman moved forward, leaning black lips to Anna's ear and whispering rapidly to her, in a voice too low for any others to hear her. They could see Anna's eyes widen impossibly, a surge of hope shooting into her eyes before she nodded, and stepped back. Before she blended back into the bodies of the crew, Calypso spoke again, adding to the whispered words she had just given her. "Your mother can wait, young one, she has for so long, but the war ahead will take your focus."

Anna nodded seriously, filing away all the information into her mind to be brought back if she survived today. If she made it out alive, she would look for her. Look for the woman she never knew.

She smiled at the unbound Goddess before her, stepping back to stand near Will. His reliable presence a weight in her mind, a comfortable way to keep her grounded as she stared back at the Goddess and wished she could go with her, become a part of the sea she had always loved. But Will was always there for her and she wanted to stand by him, wanted to chase horizons in her own way. She couldn't follow the woman like she couldn't produce her mother from the fog around them. She could only be the pirate she knew she was, and try to find meaning when all of it was over. Meaning in the way the sun rose and set and the way the waves lapped against shores around the world. She wondered if they were all connected, all the same ocean.

She and Jack would find out, but only if she won this. Won it for every man and woman who breathed pirate like she did, who felt it in their blood like she did. And then she and Jack would be free, as free as any of them. And maybe she would find her mother, and maybe she wouldn't. It didn't matter as long as the wind was on their side and the tides still pulled them in any direction it wished. As long as could breathe as free men and women, together.

And the Goddess would be free to make deals as she wished, take any form she wanted, travel the world like she was meant to. Anna could never deprive her of that, not when she had seen the want in the woman's eyes. Not when she had felt the call to rolling waves herself.

She looked at the Goddess with a sad smile, relying on Will's strength to say goodbye, something she was never good at. Her head inclined and she breathed deeply.

"Do some damage for me," she said with a growing grin, sure the woman could do anything. "And chase a horizon…for the both of us." 


	23. Chapter 23

**Okay so this may be my favorite chapter so far, because I rewrote that speech Elizabeth gives, to fit Anna. I'm really proud of it. Really proud. So, let's say…six reviews and I'll upload again, or I will force you to wait three whole days. –le gasp- . Love you!**

**-Han**

"Be there some sort of right or incantation?" Gibbs spoke up suddenly, eyes shifting between the King and the Goddess. He always thought Anna had been strange, too attuned to other's problems and less caring of her own. He always knew she would end up as something bigger than a blacksmith's ward in Port Royal, and what she had just done was more than enough proof. He doubted half the high class Navy men could have risked everything to honor a friendship.

"Aye. Items to be brought together...done. Items to be burned. And someone must speak the words, 'Calypso, I release you from your human bonds.'" Barbossa rattled off, looking proud of himself.

"Is that it?" Pintel questioned.

"It's to be said as if to a lover," Anna piped up, staring straight at the Goddess. Calypso nodded, a calmness over her face. No traces of anger, no fury of the sea in a storm. This was what she wanted and she was not being treated as a captive, standing tall like the Goddess she was.

Laughter floated through the crew and all women aboard rolled their eyes, Elizabeth huffing something lowly to Will about 'barbaric men'. Anna couldn't understand how, for all the love they had of the sea, they could not accomplish this, even with the Goddess directly in front of them. They seemed to have forgotten the fury the sea could hold when racked by hurricanes. The one who stood before them could create them on a dime, in a minute, without a thought.

And then they would all be at an end, at the hands of the one they loved so much.

"Calypso!" Barbossa shouted, holding up his lit wick. His head was tipped back, skyward, his voice bellowing into the air and he was sure other ships could hear him. "I release you from your human bonds!"

The Goddess closed her eyes, waiting for that familiar tug inside her burning body, one that yanked her toward the sea so hard she would have no choice but to comply. And her form would melt away, into the sea in any way she could, anything to be beneath the waves again.

Nothing happened. The pieces of eight did not light, not even smoke rose from the wooden bowl. Disappointment flooded through the Goddess, her shoulders slumping in ward and eyes opening slowly. Unwillingly, she remembered when the Court bound her. Jamming an impossibly large being into a small box, burning around the edges until she felt like she would explode and all at once, all the power she knew was dormant. The painful burning in her soul the only indication it was still there.

She remembered the way the sea had mourned her loss, a year of dense fog and lethargic rolling waves, missing the one they'd known since the beginning of the beginning. Her heart broke every time the tides rolled in, merging with the fresh water of the bog she resided in, making it brackish. So close to sea she could smell it and far enough away that her body begged for it, burning brighter with the incoming tide, dimming to nothing at low. She'd thought she would never escape, doomed to reside as a Jamaican voodoo woman for the rest of eternity, knowing of the future but not allowed to impact it the way she loved to in the sea.

She had been losing hope, the fire in her dying, but the pain staying behind, seared soul a reminder of what she had lost. Calypso had faded to the background and the long dead Tia Dalma had become her life, her passion, leading men astray or guiding them along the right path.

Fate had brought Jack Sparrow to her, soon after the man had been branded a pirate, demanding meaning to life. Something the Goddess in her longed to give. Her compass was bartered, taken from her by the young man's hands, and she knew things were set in motion.

And now the moment it all could have happened, the seconds ticking by in anticipation and she was still bound. The fire in her rose, agony clawing at her chest and she needed _out. _

"You didn't say it right!" Ragetti spoke up, looking almost offended that Barbossa had thought he had. Calypso held her breath, waiting. The crashing of her blood and her Divinity in her ears made her body go numb, fingers twitching in anticipation. The wiry pirate leaned towards her, moving a dreadlock out of the way and whispered to her like he had to his bonny lass, before she'd been lost to sickness in England. She knew this, because he knew this. "_C-Calypso?" _he breathed in question. He took a stuttering breath and continued. "_I release you from your human bonds."_

The pieces of eight caught fire, rising from the bowl and spinning, endlessly spinning like the planets. Her body jerked downwards, eyes rolling into her head and the Goddess felt _alive._ Felt the power in her rising, the Grace, the Divinity. It was called many things, but now it was rushing through her body and begging to be let go.

She felt the ashes be pushed towards her, allowing her to breathe in the bonds set on her and she could feel the locks being taken off, scattering around her and she could feel her heartbeat. She could feel her and Davy Jones' song in her ears and she could feel her chest expanding and receding with each lingering breath. It was like she had not seen light for centuries, stuck in a dark place within her own body that faceted all-seeing eyes could not break through.

Now she saw the way the light fell on the crew members, every cut and flaw on their skin, the way fingers twitched in anticipation. She could hear the rustle of fabric four ships over and the waves lapping on the British armada's ships.

"Calypso," her name was breathed on chaste lips, a voice soft enough to draw her writing body to a stop and make her reach the speakers eyes. Annabelle Windsor, was staring at her with gentle eyes. "When you were first bound, whose name hung unspoken on your lips?" she asked, her eyes becoming darker. "Who waited for you until sunset on his one day ashore? Who rests under the Companies command like a dog? Who needs you; needs you to free him like you did free him from Death when you first charged him with his duty?"

"Name him," Calypso whispered softly, her eyes sad and wanting on the King.

"Davy Jones," Anna breathed, stepping back to Will numbly as Calypso broke. Agony and heartbreak washed over the freed Goddess' face, and it looked like tears might fall, might run tracks down mocha skin and fall onto a black deck.

Her body started to grow, no bonds holding her back until she stood taller than the mast, only ripped pieces of lace and fabric keeping her decent. Her hands had weaved into her hair, trying to hold her splitting head together as her heart broke and mended and broke again. She had been foolish to allow herself to fall for a human.

She looked down again when Will Turner stepped forward, his head tipped back to look into her eyes and the wind whipped against his face.

"Calypso! We have done as you have asked of us. We only ask that you spare this fleet, and any that fight for the chance to chase freedom, like you have. If your fury should be unleashed, set it free on those who pretend themselves to be your master, or ours. They wish to control you, your home, and all those who dare call themselves 'pirate'. Would you let that way of life die?" Will demanded, his naïve eyes blown wide with conviction and truth and Anna had never been prouder of him. She stood beside him, feeling the wind push her hair around her face and she could taste the sea water on her tongue.

"I'll miss you," she whispered, so low that only Will could hear her, but she was sure the Goddess did. By the suddenly soft look that came over her face, she did.

A moment hung still in the salty air, waiting for something to happen. Something big enough to warrant what they had done. Anna smiled when she felt another breeze stirring and watched in awe as Calypso fell in a cascading wave of white crabs, like the ones the Pearl was carried on in the Locker. Somehow they avoided her, Will, and Elizabeth, drawing no mercy on the rest. The rocked the ship, spilling over the sides and into the sea with fever, reaching the waves and finding home.

Will glanced at her with worry. "Was that it?" he asked her softly, his eyes flicking skyward as if expecting to see a holy light set loose on the British fleet that would leave them as nothing but ashes on the waves.

Anna shook her head slowly, eyeing the sky as well, but looking for changing patterns. She found what she was looking for and leaned into her brother. "Not by a longshot," she whispered excitedly.

"What now?" Pintel asked angrily, frustration clear in his voice and the thought of an armada against them made him want to turn and run.

"Nothing," Barbossa said, defeated. "Our final hope as failed us."

"It's not over," Elizabeth spoke up, her eyes hard. "There is still a battle awaiting us."

"She's right," Will agreed, linking hands with his fiancée.

"We've an armada against us, and with the Dutchman, there's no chance," Gibbs said dejectedly, his eyes on the fleet ahead. Desperation was leaking into the crew, other ships could feel it too and no one wanted to die.

"Only a fools chance," Anna said suddenly, locking eyes with Will. He grinned in response, the pair of fools willing to fight again. Like old times.

"And I not be willing to die for a fool," Barbossa rebuked, his eyes hard and glaring on the Pirate King. Her spine stiffened and she turned her back on the Captain, moving the railing as attention shifted away from her once again.

Anna climbed onto the rigging, her hair whipping around her in the wind and the dark color stood out against the grey skies and her leather corset conformed to her body as she moved. Her head lifted, something like pride in the way she stood but Will thought it might just be determination. She looked to the crew, her blue eyes a kind of ice he had only seen on occasion.

"What will you die for then?" she asked softly, bringing attention to her as her free hand fingered her sword and her eyes roamed each dirty face. "For a short drop and a sudden stop, your hands bound in chains?" she asked with a laugh, her face contorting into anger and pain and the crew thought she looked like a pirate.

"Will you crumble before the hands of tyrants, or will you let them know what freedom tastes like, just one more time?" she questioned, her chest rising and falling quickly. Elizabeth stood in the crowd, watching the woman before her. "I have fought on this side long enough to know the passion, the fire, the freedom, as if it is burned into my body and I know it runs deeper in all of us that then military uniforms _they_ wear. I know the rush of chasing a horizon always out of reach and leaning on a sword always within it is stronger than their powdered wigs and fancy ships," she leered, her chin tilted up. The men drew closer.

"And when this ship sets sail, the one the Brethren will look to, everyone will know it too," she assured with a heart-stopping grin. It faded away into grit and need and fire. "They will see the flash of our cannons and hear our battle cries and feel the bite of our swords and they will know _what we can do!" _she bellowed, the words seeming to rip from her chest and spew out into the crowd, their eyes burning once again.

"So, gentlemen," she said, her accent more proper than any of them remembered as she gazed at her crew, proud of them. "For the sake of horizons!" the crew cheered. "For pillaging!" a greater cheer rose amongst them. "For battles!" another round of cheers and the crew were fingering their weapons with anticipation. "And for freedom! _Hoist the Colors!"_ she shouted, as the crew followed her, each voice carrying until every ship in their armada repeated the sentiment. She hung loosely from the rigging, smiling up at their flag raising in the wind. "The wind is on our side," she told them her eyes never leaving the skull and crossbones. "That's all we need."


	24. Chapter 24

**Hey! This is my early SantaClausDay present, but I think I'll update on the actual day as well, so if you have a spare moment, spread the cheer and r&r. Thanks so much for the great reviews last go round, enjoy the holiday spirit by giving me another? :3 I love you guys so so much and I hope everyone has a fantastic holiday.**

**-Han**

Davy Jones could feel the thirst for blood in his crew, in himself, in his ship. They wanted freedom, to be free from the bonds of the East India Trading Company. They wanted to sail the seas like they had for decades, unhindered by the bumbling idiocy that was humanity. They had long since severed any ties to the lot, thinking themselves above any man. And now they were enslaved to men, men with the lust for power running deep in their veins and he hated it. The Captain's mind was almost flicking back to different ways the short one could be killed. The pompous bastard striking a nerve in the Captain that was far too tender. He wanted to be feared, not looked at with distant contempt.

No matter how beautiful the moment of Beckett's death would be, he knew it would be short lived, followed quickly by the final beats of his separated heart and then he would be dead. He couldn't let that happen. He was above death. Only weak things died.

And Davy Jones was anything but weak.

His head tipped back and he watched the sky, fog condensing around them and burning away just as quickly, to be replaced by dark, ominous clouds. His chest seemed to buzz with activity, as if his heart still resided there and was simply remembering how to beat. His cold gaze switched to the small fleet they would be facing, the Black Pearl drifting ahead. He could hear the tenor of rousing cheers and knew that the Pirate King had made the choice.

A cold smile drifted to his misshapen face. This could be fun.

"To arms!" Mr. Mercer shouted, another tick in Jones' side. "We give no quarter!" Jones let his smile grew and was at least grateful that the news was good. A stray raindrop on his face drew his attention and his gaze shifted up again. The sky was darkening quickly, dangerous rolling cloud pressing down on him until he felt like suffocating.

Something in his knew, knew in the way the raindrops started on him first, spreading slowly until they engulfed his ship and then the armada and then the opposing fleet. He knew in the way the thunder cracked overhead, bolts of lightning flashing across the sky like Zeus himself had set them loose on the sea. Davy Jones knew his love had been returned to her home, to her power.

"Calypso," he whispered, his voice like a song and it carried through the heavy rain, accented by another crack of thunder. His chest felt more empty than it had in years, barren, but not unfeeling. Everything hurt, suddenly, it hurt to breathe, to think. It hurt to even contemplate the hurt she must have felt when she realized that he had betrayed her. In agony, he let loose a scream disguised as fury, his amphibious lungs pouring into the rain as he shouted. He wondered if Calypso could understand his pain from only that.

Xx

Rain beat down on the deck of the Pearl, doing nothing to deter the crewmen slaving away on the rigging. The ship sailed ahead, gaining speed faster than the others in their armada, rocking furiously in the harsh wind that still managed to be in their favor. Skin stung until it was numb under the assault of prickling water, but feverish bodies moved on, hands slick and burning as they struggled to hold on to thick ropes.

Pintel and Ragetti stumbled almost as one body on deck, clinging to their security ropes with already bruised and rope-burned fingers. Pintel glared at his counterpart, the rain making him squint. "Have you noticed, on top of everything else, it's raining?" he shouted angrily, as if nature was doing it on purpose.

"It's a bad sign," Ragetti said fervently, crossing himself quickly. It was a practiced action, one he had not indulged in in many years, since his bonny lass had died. But now it seemed like he'd never stopped. Prayer: the last hope of a desperate man.

Gibbs rushed across the deck securing lines and spouting orders, his voice carrying on the wind to the ears of the crewmen. He was soaked through to the bone, superstitious streak the only thing held stable in the torrent around them. He wondered if the Goddess they'd just set free had anything to do with it. He shook himself, of course she did.

"Man the capstan...keep that powder dry!" he shouted, glaring daggers at carless sailors. He paused a moment, gazing out over the sea of grey water and sharp white caps. A stone seemed to settle in his gut at the sight of water being pulled downward ahead of them, swirling in never-ending circles to black oblivion. Fear gripped him at the sight of a whirlpool so large he'd only heard drunken tell of anything similar. It was large enough to engulf the Pearl and the fast-moving Dutchman together. He looked back at the Captain, Annie somehow managing to stay upright and looking generally unaffected, and emptied his lungs. "_Maelstrom!"_

Anna could feel the fear in the crew, the desperation to turn back but she stayed firm. She had the wind, and that was enough, though she speculated that she had a Goddess as well. Her eyes traced the pattern of the whirlpool, wondering if the one Odysseus had faced was a replica of this monstrosity. No Captain in their right mind would willingly lead a ship into it.

She smiled, turning away from the helm and rushing to a seated and almost lethargic Barbossa. Her hair stuck to her neck and forehead, catching in her eyes until she had to push it away, her leather was slick and nearly chaffed against her when it cot the cotton of her poet's shirt. She brushed off the discomfort and faced the Captain.

"Barbossa! We need you at the helm!" she shouted above the thunder and wind. The Captain leveled her with a calm stare, but she could see the beginnings of excitement around his eyes and knew that he was a pirate at heart. One who couldn't shake the exhilaration of war.

"Aye!" he shouted back, standing abruptly and tipping his head back, a laugh breaking from his chest. "That you do!"

He took the wheel with expert hands and turned it swiftly, catching it at the perfect moment and driving them further towards the maelstrom. Anna could feel her heart beat, a staccato, irregular thing in her ears and knew this is what it was all about.

She stepped to Barbossa's side and grinned almost childishly, as if she had been waiting for it all to reach its climax and was now only holding her breath and preparing. "Brace up the yards, ya cockeyed deck apes!" he bellowed, drawing faster movement from the crew. "dyin' is a day worth livin' for!"

She couldn't agree more, as she felt Will stand beside her. Her heart was pumping faster than she'd thought it ever could, her breathing deep and steady to contradict it. She was on a high, adrenaline crashing through her veins at a rate she couldn't even describe. She felt like she was flying. Consequences held no ground and she didn't care about tomorrow, or even that night. All that mattered was the there and now and she was awaiting the biggest battle of their lifetimes. The crescendo of everything she'd been striving for was about to hit and all that mattered was the ringing of sword on sword. The inevitable fight looming ahead of them made her chest tighten, but the grin stayed locked in place. It was time to end this.

Xx

Mercer tromped across the deck of the Flying Dutchman, trying to exude the authority he should carry and failing as the whirlpool approached. His men were beginning to look scared, a sign of weakness that made his eye twitch. Jones' crew looked as if it happened every day, steering almost joyously into the crushing blackness ahead of them. "Veer out!" he screamed, the scars on his face pulling as he shouted at the crew.

"She'll not harm us," Jones said quietly, more to himself than anyone. He looked up, green eyes on his crew and this time it was clear whose authority they would be taking. "Full bore and into the abyss!" he shouted, a demented laugh threatening to break free from him.

"Are you mad?" Mercer asked, rounding on him and glaring into the monster's eyes as if trying to decode them and find something rational there. But he was adrift in a sea that had been reclaimed by its archaic Goddess, and the rules of man no longer applied.

"What?" Jones demanded, pushing his disfigured face close to the Company-man. "Afraid to get wet?" he taunted finally releasing his laugh. It was echoed throughout his crew as they sailed further into the storm.

Xx

The Pearl descended into the maelstrom with something like grace, her elegant body riding the blindly fast current like she was made for it. Anna was surprised by the lack of motion they felt on the deck, moving essentially as if they were not moving at all. Will rushed back to her side at the helm, water pouring down his face from the never-ending rain.

"On our stern and gaining," he said hoarsely, glancing back at the Dutchman as it crashed into the whirlpool, adjusting to their coarse and, as he had said, gaining on them. Anna turned back to the momentarily frozen crew.

"More speed! Haul your wind and hold your water!" she shouted, her voice almost giving out from the sheer volume. Barbossa gave her an appreciative nod, and she saw his knuckles whiten on the spokes.

"Take her out or she'll overbear us!" Will shouted to Barbossa, casting glances at the Dutchman as the guns were run out. Elizabeth stood beside him, and he could feel his heart tearing. This was the moment for him to save his father, for him to finish what he'd promised, but it would mean giving up Elizabeth. She was the only woman he could ever be in love with, no matter what she had done and whom she had betrayed.

He couldn't turn back now. He felt the assuring presence of Anna beside him and reminded himself that he was not the only one at stake. Anna was willing to give up the man she loved to protect Will, and he didn't take that lightly. She sent him a small nudge to the ribs, bringing him crashing back to earth and the wind and rain made him feel numb.

"Nay, farther in! We'll cut across to faster waters!" Barbossa insisted. Coupled with Anna's calculating nod of approval, Will relayed the orders to Gibbs. Something in him wondered if this would be their last adventure together, shouting orders down the line and waiting for an epic battle. If they might never see one another after this.

"Prepare to broadside!" Anna screamed at the crew, looking for all the world like a pirate Captain. Will wondered how she'd managed to make the transition without him noticing. He wondered what day it was, that she woke up a fully-fledged pirate.

"Captain the guns!" Gibbs added, running down the line of sailors expertly. None were deterred by the weather or the swirling water on all sides of them, they worked as evenly as ever, a few even struggling to raise a hushed sea shanty.

"At the ready!" Will and Anna shouted together, waiting with arms raised for a signal.

Xx

Jack paced his cell warily, fingering his braided beard in contemplation. He'd felt the sudden crashing of the ship and decided it was time to make his grand escape. Though he did usually like an audience to see him overcome his bonds in spectacular ways. He wondered if the projections of his own mind counted as an audience. If so, they weren't very attentive, prattling on about the state of affairs in England and the likelihood that he would be sent back to locker. The first one always managed to bring the conversation back to Anna and it was beginning to annoy him.

He didn't know how many times he'd thought about her, with nothing to do besides talk to himself and pace. He wondered how she was fairing in the heavy torrent he could hear clearly even below deck. He grinned at the thought of her soaked to the bone and giving orders like she was untouched. Jack remembered the way she had shivered when they first faced the Dutchman in the rain, waiting in the night to see if Young Will could survive. He knew she'd gotten better at hiding her weaknesses.

Like a pirate.

He shook himself, returning to the task at hand and his pacing gained speed. "Think like the whelp...think like the whelp...think like the whelp," he paused at the sight of his bars, the slime-coated hinges. "…half barrel hinges," he said distantly, as if commenting on how blue the sky was. It took a moment for the information to connect and suddenly, he was happy he'd landed himself in that cell in Port Royal. "Leverage!"

Jack moved swiftly, seconds melting away as he jammed a large piece of splintered wood between the bars and pushed down. Gleefully, he removed the useless bars and stepped out into a slightly freer environment. He cast a look back at the proud looking projections, one still hanging from the wall.

"Wish me luck, boys! I'll need it," he admitted, if only to himself. He turned and rushed away, leaving the lonely projections to lean against the remaining bars dejectedly.

"I miss him already," the first one said sadly, his face falling into a pout at the thought of the Captain joining the fight.

"He is quite charming, isn't he?" the second one said proudly, watching the Captain turn the corner and rush completely out of sight. Both sighed together, looking wantonly after the man as though they wished they could follow.

"Nobody move!" the third projection shouted, his arms spread wide and eyes scanning every inch of the cell. "I dropped me brain."


	25. Chapter 25

** Hey! MERRY CHRISTMAS! to any who do not celebrate, happy holidays! :D so this is my Christmas gift to you! Any who read Branded, yours will be in tomorrow. I love all of you so much and I wish everyone a very happy holiday. Anyone who got a spare moment to read and review has all my love. And to Ang- I miss you're awesome reviews! I want you back! **

** -Han**

Anna had never felt more alive, her arm raised beside Will's as they prepared to call the signal to fire. Her blood was crashing through her ears, moving at a rate that her head spin like the water the Pearl rode on. Endlessly spinning. A breathless smile rested on her lips, eyes wide despite the constant onslaught of water and wind. She belonged here.

"Wait till we're more to port," Gibbs cautioned as the Pearl veered closer to the Dutchman, the decrepit ship looking hauntingly comfortable riding the maelstrom. At home among the waves and the sea, no matter what it may bring. Anna thought that, if it wanted to, the vessel could pass though the walls of water around them.

They grew closer, and she could see the frantic movement on the other ship to line up their shots. Citing a hint of flash from them, waiting for the sparks to aim perfectly. When they were in range, Anna let her arm fall, her voice shouting across the Pearl at deafening volume. "_FIRE!"_

It was repeated through Will, Elizabeth, Barbossa, and Gibbs, as the crew rushed to comply. Cannon fire burst through the sound of men's voices and rushing water and the splatter of stinging rain. Distantly, she could hear Davy Jones order his own crew to fire, and she braced herself as they took hits. Wood and bodies went flying through the air on both sides, the sound of destruction and the thunder of cannons ripping through Anna's chest and it was all she could do not to laugh. Barbossa didn't seem to be able to restrain himself, as he watched the frantic and desperate looks pass over sailors' faces.

"It be too late to alter course now, mateys!" he cackled, tipping his head back to accept more of the raging torrent. Anna braced her hands on the railing, watching the Pearl and the Dutchman circle each other like archaic predators, waiting for the upper hand as shrapnel flew by their Captain's faces. She wondered distantly if Jack had gotten out yet, had freed himself from the slimy and decrepit prison.

As she watched pieces of the Flying Dutchman be ripped away and fall into the torrent of water, she hoped so. She knew her choice to release Calypso was risky for Jack, so risky she'd forced her mind off of the thought. It had had to be done, the Goddess had to be set free, no matter the cost to anyone life. Even if that life was Jack's.

And she knew that Jack could handle himself, could manage to survive, because he was a survivor, it was what he did. If anyone died it would be her, unprepared and rash, willing to die for her brother and her love. She thought absently about telling him the next time she saw him, telling Jack that she loved him more than air, almost as much as the sea.

If she were to die, she would want him to know. And she had come to terms with the fact that she was probably going to die, because at least it was the way she'd want to go. With gunfire and the ring of swords around her, suffocating her into the sea water rushing around them. And then she would fade away into the water and Calypso would watch over her between the worlds.

There was no better way to die. Not in her mind, where the sea and the sky would eventually meet and consume her when she went willingly into death's arms. That was what made her different from Jack, he feared what lay beyond when Anna thought of it as the next great adventure. To die was to be taken into the arms of the sea and to face what came next. Anna liked to think she might be reborn, maybe as a creature of the sea, something constantly enveloped by its sweet touch.

She wondered if she would still love Jack as a dolphin.

Xx

Murtogg and Mullroy wondered how they went from guarding the docks at Port Royal to guarding the heart of a mythical Captain of a mythical ship in the middle of a maelstrom too big to exist. And once upon a time, they'd argued over the validity of a ship that the mythical one they were on was currently in battle with. Almost as one they wondered if talk of the Goddess was real as well, talk of Calypso bound to the single form of a Jamaican voodoo woman. But that was preposterous.

They started when Jack Sparrow- Captain Jack Sparrow, they remembered, sauntered into the room like he owned the place. In retrospect, they would think that the Captain may have even thought that. He was just as odd looking as they remembered, lacking only a beaded coin on top of his bandanna that they could have sworn was there before. Jack looked at them almost blankly before something like recognition shot into his dark eyes, and cunning surfaced.

"Hold it or I'll shoot!" Mullroy shouted, hating that his voice wavered even slightly. Distantly he wondered where Annabelle was, the girl who never wore dresses. Sometimes he wondered if he'd made the right choice, letting her rest on the docks that day. He told himself she was happier now, having had the adventure he somehow knew she'd always wanted.

"Good one," Jack said with a smirk, moving to the right calmly and searching for something. He seemed to have found it when he grinned suddenly and made a motion with his arms that Mullroy could only describe as success. "I just came to get me effects," he said jovially, like he had that day on the docks. He had to stop thinking about that day. Jack suddenly looked an unhealthy mixture of cunning, respect, and confusion. "Admirable though it may be, why are you here when you could be elsewhere?" he asked as though the question made perfect sense.

It took the two a few moments to grasp the meaning of the question and Murtogg responded in that same stuttering way he had on the docks, like even he wasn't sure of the answer. "Someone has to stay and guard the chest," he said nervously, watching the eyes of the pirate like they would flash and then he would attack. But he doubted pirates were that predictable. Both Navy men turned and pointed their small cannons back at the chest.

"There is no question, there has been a breakdown in military discipline aboard this vessel," Mullroy commented dryly, his eyes narrowing at the thought of Mercer ever submitting to the mythical tentacled Captain.

"I blame the fish people," Murtogg said bitterly, his face twisting at the thought of the _mythical _sea creature-human hybrids. Myth seemed far too close to his reality in this day and age.

"Oh! So fish people, by dint of being fish people, automatically aren't as disciplined as non-fish people?" Mullroy quipped back, looking like he actually agreed but enjoying the argument all the same. He liked being the smarter one of the two, though he could never tell his companion that without sparking a more heated debate.

"Seems contributory, is all I'm suggesting," Murtogg replied with a light shrug, looking proud of himself for using such a large word. They seemed to have forgotten the pirate watching them with almost intrigued eyes, like he was actually interesting in the topic of discussion.

"It is true, if there were no fish people, there would be no need to guard the chest," Mullroy said back, sounding thoughtful.

"And if there were no chest, we wouldn't need to be here to guard it," Murtogg added, something like excitement creeping into his eyes. Both men looked down, to see an empty table and a long gone pirate. Murtogg hated to admit that he was good, better than Beckett, probably.

Xx

"Prepare to board!" Mercer yelled, his scarred face watching the ever closer Pearl, he could just see the acting Captain, the former princess. Former, since she had cut him off in Singapore and told him. His career had died that day, he would be sure she did as well.

Davy Jones watched the way the Princess his love trusted moved from the helm, rushing to the nearest cannon and aiming so squarely he was almost positive she had been calculating the move for the past several minutes. He growled low in his chest as she lit the wick, seeing the predatory smile on his lips.

"Cover!" he shouted, pushing Mercer down with him as the cannon blasted and lodged itself somewhere only a foot above his head. He could see the burning bodies of British soldiers screaming in agony from the blast. His cold eyes shifted suddenly to the Company man before him, scarred eyes glaring at him. A smile drifted to the Captain's face as his tentacles reached out, sliding slickly across skin. Animalistic fear flickered across the crass man's eyes before it took root and held as tentacles gripped his throat and sunk into his mouth and eyes.

It was a slow death, one spent flailing and choking out something like a scream. When the body of Mr. Mercer finally went slack, Jones smiled and reached into his pocket, bringing out the key and cackling from his chest.

When he stood again, his crew rallied behind him as he held up the key for cheers to rouse them and make them strong again. No longer under the enslavement of men, they thundered towards the Captain's cabin, their breathing excited and heavy, like they were finally allowed to breathe after long years of suffocation.

They felt their Captain pause before they saw it, an incredulous Davy Jones and a startled Jack Sparrow staring at each other like they were figments of their imaginations. Jones recovered first, falling easily into a smirk and the crew let out a low chuckle.

"Lookie here, boys. A lost bird. A lost bird that never learned to fly," Jones taunted. Jack didn't agree with that, according to Annie, he flew every time he was at the helm. He flew often, then. Instead of saying that he returned the smirk and remembered that he was better than Jones ever could be. He was Captain Jack Sparrow, after all.

"To my great regret. But, never too late to learn, eh?" he asked lightly, turning in a fluid movement similar to that expressed by gentle waves at incoming tide, and slashed a rope to his left. He grabbed it just as quickly, letting it carry him on wings of rain and sea water up toward the topsail. He swung his body swiftly, landing precariously on the mast and swinging his arms wildly to retain his balance. He grinned almost pompishily to himself as he did, the chest still in his grip and his sword at the ready.

Davy Jones appeared from the mast, his form melting from the wood in a manner that made him seem attached to the ship at a base level of skin and sinew. Something Jack wished he wasn't jealous of. The Captain of the Flying Dutchman glared, but Jack could see the desperation behind his eyes. He was just afraid of death as Jack was.

"The chest, hand it over!" he shouted, watching the way the pirate's knuckles whitened around the handle. Jack smiled, rain beating almost painfully on his face, but he'd never felt more alive.

"I can set you free mate," Jack said suddenly, a calculating look in his eyes and he wondered if Davy Jones would take the bait. Indecision and confusion riddled the Captain's face while Jack gripped his sword tighter. Anger swept to replace the indecision and Jones' eyes had never looked colder, his empty chest burning with betrayal and pain and even fear.

"My freedom was forfeit long ago!" he swore, his chest rising and falling abnormally heavily and Jack suddenly thought this may be the last time he faced the dreaded Captain. One of them would die today. The thought made him slightly sick, murderer he was not. Not like Barbossa or Jones or Beckett. It never sat right with him, and maybe that was what made him a little more human.

Jones' battle cry drew him from his thoughts as the monster drew his sword and attacked. Jack's heart stuttered at the sudden emission of noise, ripping him from the mindset of mercy and making him focus on the dance a swordfight required. He parried, his steel ringing against Jones' and he distantly recognized the sword as the one Norrington once owned.

His movements were fluid again, blocking attacks like he was not balancing on the top of a mast in the middle of hurricane in the middle of a maelstrom on a haunted ship in the center of one of the greatest battles in pirate history. He wondered how Anna was fairing, as the ships grew close enough to board, sailors on both sides pouring across the sides on gangplanks and swinging ropes, bringing the fight closer. He thought he caught a glimpse of her, laughing like she almost always did in battle and couldn't hold back the grin that rose to his lips.

Maybe, if they survived this, he would tell her how he felt.

His thoughts stopped abruptly as he caught the dull glint of steel too close to his body for comfort. His body reeled back, almost losing his balance on the mast and falling over the edge and into the black oblivion of the sea. When he righted himself, he grinned, watching the way Jones seemed to roll his eyes at the show of balance and precision. Jack seemed to nod to himself, as if to assure himself that he was still standing upright, and launched back into the fray. 


	26. Chapter 26

**Sorry it's been so long! Remnants of the holidays have had me running every which way. Thank you to all the reviewers, your support means so so much, and a quick note to Singerdreamer42 the hints (loose ends) I am hinting at now are the basis for the next installment so you can rest assured that they will all be answered. And by the way, you guys have TWO more reviews until you hit the forty mark and the fourth one is set in stone. I think it's safe to say that the fourth one will be coming! I already have a name :D It'll be called Beyond Freedom. Thank you so much guys, and don't forget to review!**

**-Han**

Anna spun, water spewing off of her as she slashed into the creature behind her, giggling as it groaned and dropped to the deck. She allowed the tilt of the ship to move her and the groaning fish-man to the edge of the railing. She grunted when her stomach slammed into the railing and quickly righted herself, her wet hair getting caught in her eyes and a breathless smile grew on her lips. Her adversary slashed at her leg, drawing a shallow cut to her calf. She hissed in pain, leaning down to drive her sword into its abdomen in response. Her smile turned feral as it attempted to push her off, standing weakly against the railing. The ship tilted again, bringing the abyss into her view.

"Enjoy…Hell," she spat between gritted teeth. The ship tilted again, and she drew back her sword, pushing the enemy over the railing in one swift movement. She smiled impishly to herself before turning and launching herself back into the battle.

Her eye caught Will as he brutally cut down a Navy man and swung himself to face Elizabeth. She couldn't hear what they were saying, but by the light in her brother's eyes, she could guess. It was just like Will to ask a woman to marry him in a moment like this.

"I don't think now's the best time!" Elizabeth shouted in surprise before turning and slashing at another man. Anna grinned and rushed to the helm, where Barbossa was taking on five at once. She graciously lightened his load as another spray of saltwater coated them. Her sword seemed to move of its own accord, battling steel and man and spinning in ways she didn't think were possible. She felt consumed by the dance, alive only when she heard the clash of steel on steel, the only beat she could move to besides the crashing of her heart.

"Now may be the only time!" she heard Will shout to his wife as they supported each other, swinging in an arch to fight off the swords moving their way. Anna smiled to herself at the thought of a marriage in the middle of all of this. "I love you. I've made my choice. What's yours?" Will demanded, pushing her against the mast and staring his love deep into her eyes. Her blonde hair stuck to her face, her chin jutted out defiantly as Will bore down on her.

"Barbossa! Marry us!" Elizabeth shouted, turning to look at the helm where Anna and Barbossa were fighting back to back, unspoken trust placed on the other.

"I'm a little busy at the moment!" he screamed back, thrusting his sword into the chest of a Navy man. Anna braced herself on his shoulder and launched herself onto a table, using the momentum to swing herself in an arch and slash the throat of one of Davy's crewmen.

"I'll do it!" Anna voiced, a grin on her lips.

"We have your blessing?" Elizabeth shouted in shock, her brown eyes on the woman's blue. Anna bowed dramatically, the grin so clear that Will let out a breathless laugh.

"I would never keep my dear brother from happiness," Anna said seriously, turning on the last word to cut down an attacker. "And as temporary Captain of this fine vessel and King of the Pirate Court, it would be my honor to marry you."

"Annie, you have no idea what this means to me," Will shouted as he fought off two men at once. Anna shrugged, flipping her body suddenly as a sword cut through the air she had just inhabited.

"What can I say? It's my day for good deeds," she said lightly. Barbossa cackled behind her, kicking a military man down roughly as he did.

"Now, if you would!" Elizabeth urged as she narrowly dodged debris from another cannon crashing into the side of the Pearl.

"Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today," Anna started, cutting herself off to slit another man's throat. "To celebrate the joining of man and woman in holy matrimony."

"Elizabeth Swann, do you take me to be your husband?" Will asked, pulling Elizabeth close to him. Anna let them talk, busy using Barbossa as a jumping off point to tackle a man sneaking up on the grizzly Captain. She heard a rushed 'thank you' from him as she punched the man into submission.

"I do!" Elizabeth shouted in joy, wind and rain beating down on her thunderously.

"Great!" Will said in response, his eyes burning with happiness and a breathless smile resting on his lips. They broke away, keeping hold of each other's forearms as they fought, swinging the other around for the greatest momentum.

"Will Turner, do you take me...to be your wife, in sickness and in health, with health being the less likely?" Elizabeth shouted, being sure Anna could hear them as she slowly fought her way to stand atop her table again. Both man and woman paused when they heard a slew of curses from Anna, who was furiously fighting a man who made the mistake of cutting her arm.

"I do!" Will shouted, slicing open the abdomen of a crewmen of the Dutchman. They watched in awe together as Anna used the back of another man to flip herself back onto her table. She grinned down at the couple, taking a moment to wipe the blood and salt water from her face.

"Then as Captain, I now pronounce you," she paused to drive her sword into another adversary. "Husband and…" she jumped to avoid another sword.

"Wife!" Barbossa took up for her, somehow managing to stand beside her, as they fought back to back again. "You may kiss…"

"You may kiss," Anna tried, but both were forced to pause at the sudden doubling of attacks and both barely had breath to spare. Will sent her a look of desperation and Anna growled low in her throat, throwing off the man attacking her and turning back to face them in time with Barbossa.

"_Just kiss!" _they screamed together as they fought. Will swung Elizabeth close to him, locking lips with his wife in a passionate kiss. Time seemed to hold still for the two as waves crashed around them, sending a spray of saltwater strongly into the air as if the ocean were trying to mirror the passion the two felt. Will clung to his love like she would die if he let go and her eyes slid closed despite the horrors surrounding them. The moment was held in infamy as their hearts and souls reached out to touch one another in the fray.

Anna smiled softly, mirroring a sister and a mother looking down at the man she would always know as a brother with pride in her eyes. She may never like Elizabeth, never think of the woman as good enough for Will, but she wanted him to be happy. Wanted him to have someone to love like he deserved to love and be loved in return.

Distantly she wondered if she'd ever have something like that with Jack, where her soul could recognize his with a kiss and they would be forever bonded the way Will and Elizabeth were. Where they would always find each other, no matter the obstacles. It was something she couldn't help but find entrancing. She sighed softly as she drove her sword into another man's neck, the steel sliding easily through muscle and bone and sinew.

She wondered where Jack was now.

Xx

Jack Sparrow fought like he knew he would die if he didn't win. He fought like the horizon itself was at risk and only the death of the creature before him would let it rest freely always out of his reach. He fought like he had something worth fighting for, and maybe he did.

"You can do nothing without the key!" Davy Jones shouted at him, cold eyes alight with fury torching Jack's skin. The human man smiled despite it, gold-capped teeth glinting in the torrent.

"I already have the key," he said pompishily, pausing his attack for a moment as Jones' beard moved of its own accord, parting as a tentacle rose, showing off the key it clutched tightly.

"No, you don't," Jones said with a smirk, his lilt making the words sound musical. Jack's smile never dropped, only grew as he distantly wondered if all fish-people were as stupid as their Captain.

"Oh, that key," he said softly, turning quickly to sever it from the rest of his beard. It fell to the deck, clattering sickly as the tentacle attempted to wiggle away. Jones' scream of pain launched him out of his own thoughts and he took a moment to be proud of himself. The moment ended when the crab that stood in place of an arm snatched his sword, snapping it cleanly until only a small portion of it remained. Jack's smile finally dropped and his eyes shifted to try to find a place to go.

The ship lurched, due to the intense firepower or the maelstrom or the will of the Goddess that had created it, neither knew. Jack lost his foot and toppled over the edge, his hand clinging to the handle of the chest with all the strength he had.

"No!" Davy Jones shouted, reaching down the snatch the other handle of the chest quickly. Jack let himself believe, for a moment, that he was saved because Jones liked him. Then, he remembered the beating heart the chest guarded and wondered how he'd manage to delude himself into thinking something so silly.

His eyes met Jones', near black staring into clear sea-green, and the cursed Captain rolled his eyes. His arm jerked up, once, twice, and Jack could no longer hold on. He fell, screaming hoarsely with arms flailing madly. A sigh of relief escape his lips as he grabbed onto a crewmember swinging by a rope. His eyes flitted over the growling Clanker before they rested on the pistol attached to the fish-men's belt.

"Oy! My pistol," Jack said childishly, grabbing it quickly and bringing it up and smashing it against Clanker's head. The crewmen fell into the abyss below and Jack took stronger hold of the slick rope. He swung himself, swiftly and pointedly shooting the chest out of Jones' hand. Another scream from the cursed Captain that Jack could be proud of. The chest fell onto another crewmen's head with a thump, causing him to fall over and be consumed by the crushing water that lay below.

Jack grinned to himself, clinging to the rope like he had that day on the docks at Port Royal. His memory flashed back and he remembered the way Anna had advocated for him, watching him with eyes too kind to be friends with those in the law, and a smile that enraptured him. He remembered the way she had listened to his story, leaning in as if to soak up everything he told her, blue eyes following the way his hands moved.

His thoughts drew from the past quickly as he spotted her standing by Will's side, that wide white grin shining clear in the thunderous storm around them. Each held a rope in their hands and were preparing to board the Dutchman. Jack watched Will swing over first, his movements a far cry from graceful as he thundered to the deck. The young man turned and watched in exasperation as Anna decided to show off.

Jack completed his arch and swung another time to watch her. Anna had turned to face the opposite direction, rope held firmly in her hand as she kicked herself off of a fish-men's chest, using the momentum to swing herself across the gaping hole between the ships. Jack watched as she spun herself midair, her arms pulling her body upwards as she rolled her body sharply enough to flip herself as she landed.

"Show off," Will muttered good-naturedly, ruffling her wet hair affectionately. She shrugged and the two off the resumed the fight they had left on the Pearl. Will saw the chest first and slid across the deck to reach it, his hands grasping it numbly.

Anna was fighting someone to his left, a growl ripping from her chest as she battled with fierce moves. Will stood again strongly as Anna slashed viciously at Maccus, the creature she was fighting. She was losing, her arms beginning to weaken and she was taking steps back instead of forward.

She lost her footing as she tripped over the body of Mr. Mercer, his unseeing eyes boring into her soul and she wondered if she should feel remorse. The thought was driven from her mind at the narrow miss of Maccus' sword attempting to drive into her abdomen. She rolled away quickly, the blade catching the edge of her arm instead. She hissed in pain and attempted to raise her own sword in defense.

She wondered if this was her life flashing before her eyes, as snippets of their previous adventures rose the forefront of her mind. Every moment ever spent with Jack was playing before her and she wished she'd had the chance to tell him that she loved him, before she died. Before she was lost to the oblivion of darkness where only Calypso could call her back from.

Before she could strike him, before she could even breathe, a flaming undead monkey shot from a cannon barreled into her attacker. She stood shakily, her knees threatening to give out beneath her as she raised her head and nodded thankfully to the still singed monkey, a shaky smile on her dusky lips.

"Thank you, Jack."


	27. Chapter 27

**Hey! okay so. This chapter does have a cliffhanger, for which I apologize. But, sadly, very sadly, I won't be updating as often in the next week and half because of midterms. I will try my very very hardest to update, but I can't make any promises. Thanks so much guys!**

**-Han**

Anna's peace lasted only a moment before she heard Will's agonized shouts. Her head turned and she watched in shock as Bill Turner slashed and cut at his own son, showing no mercy as he battled the younger William.

"It's me! It's Will, your son!" Will shouted, hoping that his words would reach the, so far, deaf ears of his father. He narrowly dodged another biting slash from his father, rolling out of the way with rain and sea water dripping from his body. His back collided with the railing, his chest moving up and down roughly. He prepared himself to fight back when the weight on top of him was gone.

Anna had flung herself across the ship to push Bill off of him. Bootstrap met her eyes and growled, a low feral thing that set her nerves on edge and made her grip her sword even tighter. She was still recovering from Maccus' heavy attack, her limbs weaker than she would have liked as she met each deadly lunge of Bill's sword.

"That's your son, you undead fool!" she shouted, spinning in time to catch his low blow with her own sword, water flying from her hair strong enough to sting against Bootstraps' face. He raised a hand to rub his eyes, and she took the moment to check on Will. He was struggling to stand, his eyes slightly unfocused. She rolled her eyes and took the brunt of the attack again as Bootstrap recovered, a snarl on his pale and disfigured face. The sea life attached to him made his movements uneven, choppy as he tried to lunge at her, narrowly missing her abdomen as she jumped back sharply.

"Don't you dare harm her!" She heard Will shout, jumping across her to begin fighting his father again, his attacks more vicious than they had been originally. Anna sent him a breathless smile and moved to find the chest again.

Jack had thundered to the deck in time to see Will take over the fight for Anna, his eyes searching for the brunette Captain in the flurry of rain and wind and clashing steel. When he found her, he took a step forward, his eyes riveted on the woman he needed to reach. Before he could call out to her, Jones was in front of him, a cold smile on his lips.

Jack pulled his sword out, his grin dropping quickly when he remembered it was broken, the jagged edge not able to do any real harm to the Captain in front of him. He gulped and ran, hiding behind the wheel the Kraken could have been summoned by. Jones followed him, faking him out with sharp movements to the left or right that Jack countered smoothly.

Jack thought he might be able to do this forever, until Jones stepped through the material and into the center of the wheel. Jack frowned and spun it, watching it go around and around and not disturb the cursed Captain in the slightest. His head tilted to the side in distant concentration, when Jones roared, shaking his tentacles at the younger Captain. Jack screamed hoarsely, his eyes open wide and ran the other way, his boots slipping on the deck in his haste to get away from Jones.

Anna watched him go with a slight smile and ran to face Jones. Elizabeth appeared beside her and she shook her head. "Go help Will," she said insistently, waiting for the Captain to turn around and face her. Elizabeth looked doubtful, but did as she asked, turning frantic eyes behind her to find her husband.

"All right, then! You'll see no mercy from me!" Jones shouted, remembering the words of his lover in her cell. His grin was feral as he moved forward, watching the flushed and obviously tired woman wield a sword in front of him as if she had known the steel her whole life.

"Wasn't asking for it!" she shouted back, spinning on her back leg to start the fight with a move Jones had only seen on occasion. She lunged forward with the right side of her body, clashing with his sword and stepping on his foot in the same move. When he moved back to favor it, she pressed even further inward, bringing her sword around the back of her to attack him from the other side and Jones didn't have enough space to move comfortably. "But considering, you are the great Davy Jones," she hissed as she jerked her knee up to meet his abdomen, using the same momentum to bring her sword over her head and slice through layers of tentacles. "I think, it's only fair, for me to fight," she paused, spinning again to slash open his stomach, cringing visibly when he took the moment to land his own blow on her shoulder. "Dirty."

He roared in the pain she had caused and doubled the strength of his attacks, pushing her back the other way with deliberate steps and lunges until she was struggling for footing. She growled, a low thing that made him wonder if she was the one that was part creature instead of him, and spun around, her back facing him. He moved to take advantage of her vulnerability when she jumped onto the railing and pushed herself off of it, propelling herself over his head and behind him.

Even he could see the layers of exhaustion beginning to settle in on her body, her skin looking pale in the heavy thunder and rain. Her eyes flitted to the right of him and he could see the blonde and the naïve one fighting Bootstrap, both moving with each other as if choreographed.

Will moved around the back of Elizabeth, almost rolling off of her as he plunged his knife, his father's knife, into Bootstraps sleeve, pinning him to the railing. The move was quick, sharp, bringing his face close to his father's as he met the dead, unresponsive eyes. It was like staring into the eye of a storm, uncaring of the welfare of passing ships, only concerned with the way it moves across the sea. His father was animal, inhuman, unseeing.

"I'm not gonna kill you," he said, trying to spark some form of familiarity in his father, his blood. "I made you a promise."

He left his father there, grabbing Elizabeth's arm to keep her with him as he slid across the deck, blinking water from his eyes. His intake of breath was sharp and fearful as he saw Jones backhand his sister. Anna's body crumpled against the stairs, glaring up at the undead Captain as he made his way towards her. She was bleeding from her calf, still, her shoulder in more than one place and her eyes were slightly glazed from pain.

Will could see her reaching slowly for her sword, trying not to move too quickly when he was at the advantage. She sent him a warning look, as Elizabeth pushed him on, as if asking him to make a move.

Jones moved forward, the claw he'd used to hit the woman before her hanging threateningly at his side. A cold grin rose to his lips. "It looks like our princess is in need of a hand," he snarled, another step towards her. "It would be my honor to oblige, but as I have no hand to give, you will have to settle for this," he said, raising his sword. Her eyes widened, scrambled back on the steps and she was reminded of when she did so on the Pearl, rushing for the gun before the Kraken could take them. The way the deck had splintered around her, throwing her harshly against the wood until she could taste blood in her mouth.

Why did this seem so much more permanent?

Her fingers tried to find purchase on the slimy stair case, her breathing irregular and ragged as she struggled. Her eyes caught Will's and she breathed a sigh, sure her bother could buy her a few seconds as she struggled to find a grip on her sword and the stairs at once.

She could hear the sickening sounds of a sword pushing its way through bone and sinew and slimy skin and suddenly she was staring at Will's blade, pushed clean through Jones' chest. The claw rose again, a heartless laugh breaking from his chest, as opposed to the writhing pain he should have felt.

Anna hated that, hated when people didn't feel pain like she did. They should have to, when just a splinter could make her wince. She growled as he bent the sword with his claw, making it impossible for Will to pull it out. When his attention was distracted, she slipped from the stairs, moving quickly to stand to the side of Will, her breathing shallow.

"Thought I was a goner for a second there," she said as calmly as she could, passing a grateful glance to Will.

"Like I'd let my sister die," he huffed with a roll of his eyes, trying to pretend like they weren't grasping desperately at some form of normal, like they weren't all about to die. Like they would be okay.

"Mister, did you forget? I'm a heartless wretch!" Jones shouted, turning around and kicking Will swiftly in the chest, Anna growled, her body shifting to predatory and her movements quick. She heard Will's head crack against the railing and watched Elizabeth run to him, cradling his upper body. While Jones was distracted, she spun, using her momentum to grab his tentacles and slice them cleanly, her eyes burning with hatred. He roared, slapping her again with his claw and forcing her body towards the railing. Elizabeth caught her before she could go over, her fingers white on her shirt.

Jones recovered, a mixture of blood and slime coating his shirt and his eyes alight with a fire burning deep in the soul he had forgotten he had. His sight was tinged with red as he caught the way Elizabeth draped herself protectively over Will, while Anna recovered from the harsh slap he'd given her. The princess' breathing was uneven, looking like her ribs had slammed hard into the railing of his ship and the thought brought a smile to his lips.

His eyes drifted back to the boy and the way the blonde had flung her body across his, as if offering herself up before him. He smiled. "Ah, love. A dreadful bond. And yet so easily severed," he said with a cruel look in Anna's direction as if to promise her that she would always find love to be severed. He took a step closer, bringing his misshapen face close to his and he could feel the sting from his severed tentacles. "Tell me, William Turner, do you fear death?"

"Do you?" A gruff voice asked loudly. Anna's body jerked up at the sound of it and she stared at Jack, the beating heart of Davy Jones held in his hand, his broken sword hovering above it like the guillotines in London. He held the life of another in his hands and his thoughts were drawn back to the pale and bleeding Annie across the deck, her eyes wide and pleading. The pirate she knew looked different, his eyes wide and victorious, rain dripping off of him and accenting the wide, almost demented smile on his lips.

The moment was frozen and heavy, crystalizing rain around them as their eyes met for the first time since the fight began and she looked close to begging and unconsciousness. She'd been hit too many times, her arms heavy and her breathing shallow from her meetings with railings and stairs. Her heart thundered in her chest, much like the one in Jack's hand and she could feel the world around her slipping away, until she was alone in the hurricane of thoughts and feelings that would drag her under and drown her.

"Heady tonic, holding life and death in the palm of one's hand," Jack said almost sweetly, dragging his eyes from Anna to meet Jones'. There was no forgiveness, no mercy, no ounce of regret in the pirate's gaze as he stared at the Captain of the Flying Dutchman.

"You're a cruel man, Sparra," Jones growled, his eyes betraying his fear, panic slipping into the yellow-green on his eyes. Jack smiled, a cruel thing that Anna had never seen him wear before.

"Cruel is a matter of perspective," he said calmly, as if the world around them had truly come to a standstill and nothing either of them did would change the end. This was his Ace, and he had shown his cards to Anna, finally. She swallowed and attempted to stand, her eyes frantic on Jack. She couldn't lose him. She couldn't let him be taken under by a curse so black and cruel that not even the Goddess could remove it. She couldn't let him become anything less than what he was. Freedom was slipping through her fingers and she didn't have time to chase it anywhere but to the man right in front of her.

"Is it, now?" Jones asked, a spark returning to his eyes and Jack swallowed in something close to fear. Before he could move, Jones had spun and drove his sword forward, pushing it through muscle and sinew and into the heart. He laughed, a cruel cackle rising from his chest as he watched William Turner struggle to breathe around the sword in his chest. As he watched Will scrunch his face in pain, a scream tearing from his throat as he collapsed further into the railing.

He laughed as Will's chest moved up and down painfully slow around the obstruction in his body, the sharp steel causing pain to rush through his system on waves harsher than the ones around them, spilling saltwater onto the deck like the ocean was mourning a loss. 


	28. Chapter 28

**Alright, I was disappointed with the amount of reviews I got last time, but I can't make you guys comment. –sigh- okay, well, this is the new chapter. Also, LittleMissDreamer7- I missed you so so so much!**

**-Han**

Elizabeth collapsed against Will, her breathing shallow and harsh as her heart went into overdrive and her blood felt thick in her veins. Hysteria was pouring into her body as she covered Will's dying form with her own, fingers trembling as they reached to touch his skin. It was too cold, wet from the rain and pale, not like the skin she knew, the skin she had memorized over the course of their adventures.

The light was dimming from his eyes and she wanted to see him smile, wanted to see those innocent brown eyes crinkle on the edges as he told her that he loved her. She wanted him on the battlements at Port Royal, large feathered hat and the grin of a pirate and a good man. A strong man that could hold her while she slept through nightmares of undead pirates coming for her, and whisper softly into her hair that she would be alright.

"Will?" she asked, her voice only a whisper in the raging sound around them. _"Will, please!"_ she pleaded, her voice growing hysteric as it rose in volume and became a shriek of agony and pain. "Look at me, Will. Stay with me," she begged, tears dripping from her eyes and her face collapsing into denial and pain. "You're alright." She held his face in her hands, her fingers digging into his skin, begging him to look at her.

"_William," _Bootstrap breathed, sagging against the railing he was pinned to. "My son," he moaned, his features rippling with a bone deep pain that seemed to fissure out of his heart and lodge into the recesses of his still-sane mind. Rage followed the pain, catching on his veins like quick fire that consumed and he was being dragged under. He ripped himself free of the knife, sparing it a glance and remembering the way his son had gripped it like it was a promise.

He roared, despair and ager mingling together and spitting out of him, driving him to move. His body hit his Captain's with a thud, driving them back and away from his son with harsh moves as he threw his body into hurting Davy Jones, into making him feel the pain he did. Pain so deep it tore at his soul and the thought of his son, gone, reminded him of Will's mother. Beautiful smile and soulful eyes as she waved goodbye to him. He would never see her again and he never got to really say goodbye, or tell her that he was sorry for leaving her behind. He wouldn't make the same mistake twice.

Anna couldn't move, couldn't breathe, her eyes fixed on the slowly weakening body of her little brother. She could feel Jack hesitate, his hand hovering over the beating heart, broken sword less than an inch away from piercing the organ. She heard a strangled sob, a sound like ripping agony tearing through a chest. Her knees collapsed and hit the deck with jarring force, her fingers threading into her hair as if to hold herself together, and she realized the sobs were coming from her. Her body shuddered, wanting to reach out, reach for Will.

"_Will," _she whispered, tears flowing from her eyes. Her voice sounded like a broken command. "_Get up, Will, you have to get up,"_ she insisted, crawling closer to him until she could touch him. Her head turned, eyes glaring in Jack's direction. The pirate hadn't moved, wide eyes filled with fear and hesitation and pain. Everything was frozen around them, ignoring Jones and Bootstrap fighting to imminent death.

She looked pleadingly at him, begging for something neither of them could understand. She watched his grip tighten on his broken sword, indecision playing across his face and Elizabeth was crying behind her, clinging to Will like only her body was keeping him breathing. Anna's eyes stayed locked on Jack's, praying he wouldn't do it, wouldn't pierce the heart with his own hand.

"Jack, don't," she whispered, realizing that he couldn't hear her over the sounds of Bootstrap's pain and rage and Elizabeth's choked sobs. "Please don't do that," Anna pleaded. "Jack you can save him, you have to save him!" she was shouting now, hysteria leaking into her voice as she begged. She knew Jack would stab the heart, he would do it himself and he would become Captain and Will would die in her and Elizabeth's arms, fade away into the rain and the wind and the salt water.

Jack looked at her with broken eyes, his knuckles white on the sword. Rain and wind beat down on him until his tan skin was as numb as his heart felt as he watched Elizabeth cling to her husband and Anna grieve over her brother. He locked eyes with Anna again and felt himself returning to the battlement at Port Royal, back when things were simple, and she told him that her place was between him and the law. When she said he was her best friend. When he kissed her roughly in front of the world and had no shame and his eyes scrunched shut in hesitant fear. He didn't want to lose all of that, gone forever and fading to the background and they would both die one day.

"Will, look at me," Elizabeth was still pleading, shaking Will's upper body with shaky hands and crying, sobbing into his hair. This wasn't the way their adventure was supposed to end, he'd promised her that they would be okay. They were supposed to be okay. They were supposed to get out of the sea's grip and rest together and grow old and raise children and talk fondly of the days of adventure they had left behind. They were supposed to love each other, learn every line of skin together under moonlight filtering through the windows of the house they shared.

He was supposed to love her, care for her, provide for her because he was strong enough to do it. He was supposed to whisper in her ear sweet things that would send her heart racing and she would remember the way he came for her when she was kidnapped. Came when he didn't have to.

"Jack," Anna spoke again, her voice watery and broken. He didn't open his eyes and his hand wavered over the heart, pushing downward a fraction of an inch. "Please don't do this. Jack, God, please don't do this." She was crying almost hysterically, barely able to spit out the words as she clung to Will's chest while Elizabeth cradled his head and whispered soothing words to him. Jack looked up, his head tilting to the side as Anna shook her head violently. "Please, Jack, don't be so selfish," she begged. "_The man I love wouldn't do this."_

Davy Jones flung Bootstrap off of him, watching the deteriorating body of his crewman hit the railing with a sickening thud. Jones raised his sword, moving threateningly towards Bill Turner, fury and rage in his acidic green eyes. His remaining tentacles rippled in feral joy at the thought of a kill, his empty chest rising and falling with a hiss of air.

"You will not forestall my judgment!" Jones screamed, preparing to lunge into Bootstraps' chest, his sword gleaming in the rain. Bill's eyes widened in fear, life flowing before his eyes like water he couldn't hold onto, like the tides he couldn't change, He could see the sword plunging downward, moving towards his body with blinding speed and then it stilled, held above his body like the judgment of the Gods.

Davy Jones felt the pierce of his heart like lightning striking him from above, sharp steel slicing through the beating organ, spilling blood around it as it severed him down the middle. His mouth opened in an unheard scream of anguish, his sword dropping to the deck with a clang of steel. His hands rose to claw at his chest, wishing he could stop the pain, stop everything, stop breathing if it meant he could be at peace. His head turned, acidic eyes landing on a stone-faced Jack, who held Will's hand on the broken sword tightly, his dark eyes impossibly sad and broken.

Elizabeth was crying into Will's body, her face turned away from Jones as he stumbled backwards towards the railing, pain ripping through his body and spreading across every facet of his being. Anna was gripping Will's free hand like she would die if she let go, trusting and proud eyes flicking between her brother and Jack, whose heart was racing faster than the waters around them, but he couldn't look at her. His eyes were riveted on Jones as he staggered backwards, green eyes tinged with emptiness.

"_Calypso," _Jones breathed. Davy Jones, Captain of the Flying Dutchman, let his body fall over the railing, feeling empty air beneath him like a caress running soft fingers across his skin and he let himself believe it was his lover carrying him into the next life. Like Calypso was offering him soft guidance to the Other World like he did for others those first ten years. Bitterness and heartache had faded with the piercing of his heart and he felt peace, serenity as his hat flew off and his body was consumed by the maelstrom. Darkness crushed in upon his soul and he felt the soft whispers of the Goddess against the mutated light that used to be the humanity in his body.

Before he died, before he let himself be taken under by the rushing currents of his home, he let himself believe that all things were mended. That he and his love would be forever joined without the rifts that had caused him to carve out his heart in bloody, fiery betrayal. He let himself believe that Calypso had forgiven him as he had forgiven her and that they would be joined in the next life like she used to promise him under the stars by the sea. That their love could continue beyond the shattering pain that was life, where death could be a comfort.


	29. Chapter 29

**Hey guys! I'm sorry it took me so long, I've been studying really really hard for exams and I had a slam poem due and ohmygosh, just too much stuff. Thank you so much for all the reviews last chapter, they meant so much, and I'm glad you guys liked how she admitted it- I was a little iffy on the way, but in the end I'm happy with it. So, review, let me know what you think, and I'll try to update again on Sunday. (gotta birthday party and a tribute concert to attend). All my Love.**

**-Han**

The Black Pearl would be sucked under if they didn't get out, the deck seeming to moan under the pressure of the spinning water around it, pulling harshly on the black wood. Crewmembers felt their bodies' angle downwards, as if being pulled by invisible threads toward the black center of the maelstrom. Barbossa was screaming orders, looking unwillingly back at the fast disappearing Dutchman being taken away by the currents. His face hardened, erasing traces of misplaced guilt at the thought of the four pirates lost and faced the sailors again.

"She's takin' us down! Make quick, or it's the locker for us all!" He barked, his hands tight on the wheel like his firm grip alone could save them. The Pearl started to veer out, fighting the swirling waters with a strength the crew could only pray would hold out.

The Captain's eyes flicked back to the Dutchman, watching it be swept further towards the center of the maelstrom, flitting along the edges of the crushing blackness. Anna's eyes followed the leaving Pearl with dark eyes, eyes praying for salvation from the oblivion she was falling into. Whether it was the one the Dutchman was flying to or the one in her own chest, she didn't know.

She was still clinging to Will's chest, unwilling to move as tears streamed from her eyes and she felt herself take Elizabeth's hand as they watched him die. Elizabeth was in hysterics, her grip bruising around the pirate woman's fingers, squeezing as if to reassure herself that it wasn't a horrible dream. Anna couldn't breathe, she was crying too hard. She could feel his life slipping away as his chest tried valiantly to rise and fall.

Words were falling from her lips in barely intelligible tumbles, it might have been a repeated slur of 'No's' rising from panic. She knew that was what Elizabeth was saying, holding his face in her hands and begging for her husband to look at her. Anna flicked her eyes up, watching in horror as the crew of the Dutchman walked forward with purpose, Will's dying breath lingering around them like a whispered goodbye.

"Part of the crew, part of the ship," Bootstrap said almost sadly, gazing at his son like he was sorry. Anna felt Jack lay a hand on her shoulder gently, trying to pull her back from her predatory position in front of her brother. She looked at him, eyes swimming and red at the edges, fear and panic mingling together until rational thought was dispelled.

"Don't leave me! I won't leave you!" Elizabeth screamed, writhing against Jack's strong hand as he began to pull her back, her eyes riveted on her husband. Anna felt herself standing, gaze held still on his bleeding chest, her own feeling empty and impossibly heavy at the same time. She'd failed her little brother. Failed to protect him.

"I'm so sorry, Will," She whispered, stumbling backwards as the weight settled on her heart. He was dead, because he tried to help her. Dead because she couldn't do anything right. Dead and gone and beyond reach. Her hands braced herself on the railing as she tried to control her spinning emotions, distantly she realized that she'd told Jack she loved him, in some indirect way. She smiled grimly, another thing she'd ruined. Jack wouldn't be able to look at her now.

She steeled herself, moving with purpose as the crew converged on Will's body, Bill's knife held out in front of him. She slashed at a rope, gripping it tightly as Jack moved with her taking hold of another until they were holding up both ends of a canvas. Makeshift parachute in hands, they moved to the railing, preparing to jump and pray the wind would catch them. Anna felt numb, frozen words inside her chest, sobs caught in her throat. There was still a war to be had.

Will would have wanted her to go on. She felt Jack the monkey climb onto her shoulder and wrap himself tightly around her as she did herself around the pirate. Elizabeth was clinging to the front of him, arms around his neck like he could distract her from pain. Jack's dark eyes were bleak, stoic and forever calm looking. She wondered if beneath the exterior, he grieved. She wondered what he felt.

Before they let the breath of the Goddess carry them to safety, she heard Bootstrap whisper to his son, "_The Dutchman must always have a Captain."_

But Will was dead, didn't they see that? Couldn't they tell?

The wind jerked them up and away from the HellGate, the Flying Dutchman being sucked under by its blackness. Her body crashed against Jack's as they were pushed towards the Pearl, her body trying desperately to hold on. The sighted the Pearl and Jack angled them towards it with a deft twitch of his hand. They hit the water softly, the water caressing Anna's skin as she floated gently to the surface.

Jack was supporting Elizabeth, who looked to have shut down, her eyes unseeing on the rest of the world. They swam for the ship, water making her limbs feel heavy and she felt her burns pulling against her skin, old scars making themselves known. She climbed up the side of the Pearl last, half-drowned monkey clinging to her shoulders like she was the Messiah.

Her head rose and she felt herself slipping into her role, Pirate King, strong. She couldn't afford to be anything less when the armada was against them. She couldn't show the weakness she felt in her body at just the thought of her little brother. Or of Jack.

She walked almost lazily to the helm, standing beside Barbossa calmly, her eyes on the ships ahead. The older Captain slid his eyes to her almost slyly, as if taking everything about her into account. She was still bleeding from a few places, but she didn't show pain. The real pain was in her eyes, a shattered reflection of her heart.

"Assumin' what happen' down there is what I think, it'd be best to put it behind you," he offered, wondering if that even counted as advice. Her gaze flicked to his, a nearly daring look resting just above the grief and regret. "S'why pirates don' tie themselves down."

"Is it impossible for pirates to feel, then?" she asked, her back straight.

"Now no one said that, lass," Barbossa said wisely. "But hard is a man's life that puts his family on the line and survives, when they are lost to black oblivion and crushing depths."

"I suppose it's very good that I'm not a man, isn't it?" she bit back, her eyes narrowing. He nodded his head thoughtfully, his eyes flicking between her and Jack as the younger man gazed at the armada ahead of them, trying to figure out his course of action.

"Aye, man ye aren't, but pirate ye are," he intoned, a tip of his head in her direction. "An' seldom be there a pirate that don' know that feelin's rough as hurricanes swell's produces bad form."

Anna sighed and ran a hand through her hair, her eyes flicking between the armada and the sky as if it could give her answers. Barbossa thought they looked murky, undecided, scared. "Sometimes feelin's the only way to know you're still alive," she said slowly, as if trying out the words on her tongue. "And sometimes we're just falling away and breaking and feeling is all that holds us down," she said, her voice gaining strength. "And there's no way to stand grounded on the sea and maybe you don't need it but I know sometimes I need a sign, a reason. Nothing but the sea and the stars are eternal, but _feeling _could make our brief time here worth it."

Barbossa looked like he would respond but Gibbs' seemed to finally find his voice, staring at Jack as the Captain cracked his neck and began walking towards the helm. "Jack, the armada's still out there, the Endeavour's coming up hard to starboard, and I think it's time we embraced that oldest and noblest of pirate traditions..." he trailed off, looking hopefully at his Captain as if expecting Jack to lose the stern look and fall into one of his wide-eyed crazed looks that made Gibbs think of adventure were they would come out alive.

"Never actually been one for tradition," Jack said amiably, gazing at the crew as a God might gaze upon the Earth. "Luff the sails and lay on iron!"

"Belay that, or we'll be a sitting duck," Barbossa shouted, his scratchy voice cutting across the crew's movement and Anna glared at him, her eyes narrowing and showing only a sliver of blue surrounded by smudged kohl.

"Belay that 'belay that'," Anna shouted in sync with Jack, a stolen glance lingering between the two as they spoke as one.

"But Captain," Gibbs tried to persuade Jack, his eyes wide and pleading on his Captain, his friend.

"Belay!" Jack shouted, his eyes cutting back to an insistent Gibbs as they climbed the stairs.

"The armada!"

"Belay!"

"The Endeavor..."

"_Belay!"_

"But we…"

"Kindly _Shut it!" _ Jack shouted, his hands moving in violent hand motions as he finally reached the helm and glared at his first mate. Gibbs fell silent, his eyes finding the deck with a dejected look.

Jack came to stand beside her and it took all her strength to push down the tide of rolling emotions in her chest, to stem the flow of unnecessary panic at the thought that he didn't love her back and that their moments together would be their last spent as themselves. She wondered if she should leave after this, hop off in Tortuga and make a life for herself, return to the Hai Peng, her ship, and live as her own Captain, no bounds. Her soul would be sated, close to the sea forever, but her heart would remain barren and scarred, the wounds lingering there and she would never really be happy. Wouldn't be happy without Jack by her side, dreadlocks and odd mannerisms that she could relate to and the coy smile that made her heart beat too fast.

He flashed that smile at her as his gaze flicked between Anna and the armada, a knowing look in his eyes that she didn't seem to understand. He wondered if he should take the opportunity to tell her of his stirrings, or could he call them feelings by now? He's heard what she'd said, what she'd screamed in the middle of the numbing whirlwind of emotions they were drowning in. He's heard her admit to loving him. The word was like a curse to him, all times he'd ever gotten close the pain had been too much and even to love his mother was dangerous. But maybe he could tell her, take the moment to let the truth drip from his tongue like a hymn that she could sing along to, something they both knew.

Instead he waited, letting the silence stretch between them like the space between the sea and the stars, meeting on the out-of-reach horizon he earned for. It was calm, the moment carried on through the sounds of nervous crewmen but they didn't stir, gazes flickering to the other when they thought one wasn't looking. Blue and black meeting for second long intervals to try and convey some sort of comfort.

He couldn't tell her with the weight of her brother's death still on her shoulders, even if she didn't realize what his father had been saying when they'd been pulled under. He couldn't tell her on top of the guilt and the fear and the pain and the grief he knew she was struggling with. Jack had never known a woman so well, well enough to read the set of her shoulders and the twitching of her fingers. Jack had never cared that much.

He wondered if she was changing him, he didn't feel any different, still the same free bird wishing to chase a horizon. Still the same Captain Jack Sparrow. Maybe she was molding herself to him, fitting around his flaws until they were muffled and only the best of him could be seen. Or maybe they just fit that way, pieces finally joined in a way that felt like home.


	30. Chapter 30

**Hey! I know this is short, but exams are a big deal for me and taking the time to write this at all is time I should be studying. That's how much I love you guys, so you should review. And to Ang, HI! I missed your reviews so much! And yes, I WILL be writing the fourth one, and I'm so glad you're back. 3 Thank you so much!**

** -Han**

Anna thought her heart had stopped. She thought her entire world was put on hold and the waves beneath her had stilled. She thought that her blood had run dry and her skin had gone numb and she had been sent alone and frozen into the far reaches of the stars where no one could find her. She thought everything had paused, when the Flying Dutchman rose from the depths with a deafening roar of misplaced water and sea foam. Water splashed the sides of the Pearl and she felt a few stray droplets on her skin, assuring her it was real.

Eyes unnatural blue and wide on the decrepit vessel as it stripped itself of the hands of the water that had embraced it in the maelstrom. Her eyes were riveted on her brother, hanging from the rigging like she did when she felt invigorated. A new, dark scar on the tan skin above his heart, a bandanna wrapped around his head, and a breathless smile on his lips. Anna ran a hand through her hair, shock playing across her entire body until everything felt frenzied and alive. She felt Jack lay a hand on her shoulder, but she was already moving, rushing towards the railing as if the few feet could assure her that the man hanging from the rigging on the Dutchman was actually her little brother.

"_Will," _she breathed, the word like a sigh on the wind that could be carried to his ears and he would know that she was thinking of him. She could practically feel Elizabeth's joy only steps from her as the smile she carried became infectious and rose on her own. She felt the ship beneath her move, turning to face the Endeavor head on, the waves beneath them seeming to push them on. Her heart felt lighter, her breathing easy as though it had been restricted before and suddenly everything seemed bright. The sun dancing across the waves in sharp relief and it almost hurt her eyes to have it reflected back at her.

But she looked on, refusing to tear her eyes away from the young, strong man her little brother had become. The man she'd watch grow up to become the Captain of the Flying Dutchman, the most fearsome ship of the seven seas, besides the Pearl, she added mentally with a smirk. Her little brother, charged with the sending souls from each world, riding the green flash into the realm of the Goddess.

On the other ship, sea life was falling off the crew like they were being reborn, their lungs expanding and their movement's fluid for the first time in too many years to count. Will looked over the crew, his crew, the life ahead of him endless and there was no regret in his chest at the thought.

"Ready the guns!" he shouted, his voice so much stronger than it had been in another life, when the tone of his voice was musically soft and carried the naïve hopes of a romantic. Now he knew better and he felt like the pirate Anna had always wanted him to be, so they could chase horizons together.

They were fast approaching the Endeavor, wind whipping at them, on their side like the breath of Gods advocating for the survival of all that was _pirate. _And the space in-between the Pearl and the Dutchman seemed eternal and just enough for Beckett's ship to pass through. The knowledge came to Anna as soon as both ships made the turn.

"_Full canvas!"_ she shouted in time with Jack, their voices mingling together and rising above the crashing of the waves against the ship. That was something both of them were good at, knowing what the other was thinking and speaking in sync, together, like they were on the same wave-length. Like they operated on the same level of high hysteria and lust of freedom.

Barbossa repeated the statement and there was frenzied movement on both decks, all sailors feeling the charge of victory flooding through their veins and it was so close to being in their reach. Anna looked back to Jack, the smile on her face elated like the sun rising over the horizon, another moment to breathe deeply. Jack's own coy grin reminded her of why she fell for him, the slight upturn of devilish lips and an undertone of the excited man with a lust for the freedom he could taste like rum sliding down his throat.

They were overtaking the Endeavor, the beautiful naval ship being blanketed by piracy, being suffocated by the freedom that ran through their veins. Anna's head tipped back, the wind moving her hair back in flowing waves and the kohl around her eyes smudged from the rain and the tears that had traced their way down her cheeks. That emotion seemed so far away as she stared down the military men across the span of water. Now all she felt was invigorating sensation of blood pumping too fast in her veins and her heart about to burst of its own accord.

"Birdie, I think it's time to let Beckett know what freedom tastes like," she whispered, a spark in her eyes that Jack could trace back centuries to the first man who realized living outside of the law made him feel alive.

Jack nodded, his grin matching hers as they looked together to the crew. Gibbs sent wide, joyous eyes to him and pretended he didn't feel so eager. "Cap'n?" he asked, nearly begged, wanting to see the fire consuming the bane of their existence, wanting to see the burst and splintering of wood around the Pearl as their enemy succumbed.

"_Fire," _he whispered, a rough and tumbled music note that Anna could feel in her chest, the urge to scream it rising over everything.

"_Fire!" _she screamed with Gibbs, urging cannons to burst across the distance and bury themselves into the Endeavor, into her ex-fiancé. Anna could hear Will scream it from the other side of the Endeavor, his voice sounding so much stronger than it had that first day, that first time on the Crossing from England when he looked at her and begged her not to leave him. He'd grown up.

Beckett locked eyes with Annabelle Windsor, the woman who would have guaranteed him the best business deal of his life. The cause of this turn of events. He felt detached, his mind gone from his body and he was floating above it all, above everything, staring down at himself as he struggled to form words when his officer asked for a way out, a command. Didn't he understand that there was nothing left to do, nothing left to accomplish? They'd _lost. _At the hands of a drunken pirate, a naïve child, and a pirate princess. He'd lost everything.

But, he recalled, that was how business worked, and that was what he spit out to the young Naval man beside him. _"I-It's j-just good business."_

Cannon blasts played the song of gods, their hands deciding the fate of the East India Trading Company. The officer's face crumpled into disbelief and panic, his voice rising above the sounds of their own death coming to greet them. "_Abandon ship!" _Sailors ran, jumped ship, tumbled over one another in an attempt to escape the end they faced. The deck tore away in pieces, splinters flying through the air like a fluid mosaic, Beckett wondered if he could find patterns in them. He could feel the heat of a fire behind him as he began to walk, steps slow and decided towards the stairs, his fingers caressing the smooth railing.

His face was calm, different from the princess on the Pearl he held eye contact with. Her face bordered on elation, a spark in her eyes he didn't recall seeing when he cornered her in his office so many months before. He couldn't stand to see the victory in her eyes, those blue eyes that flickered to Jack, his enemy of enemies. He faced the stairs, his gaze shifting to the space in front of him, his head held high as he descended.

His ship tore away behind him, the railing splintering in a fiery haze of damnation where his fingers had moved on. The powder magazine ignited, but Beckett didn't feel the flames licking against his skin, tearing away his flesh, his life. He didn't feel anything but the ghostly expression on his own face, still shocked by his own failure.

His body hit the water with a splash that Anna could hear from her position, spread eagle on his Companies flag. The outline of the business man's body bobbed in the water like it couldn't decide which way to go, limp arms spread outwards as if to embrace his flag.

Eyes unseeing into the blackness of the ocean, Lord Cutler Beckett was lost to the tides and the will of the Goddess that once again commanded them, dragging his soul into the darkness of her realm. And Anna could feel it in her soul like she could feel elation when the flames consumed him. She could feel the end of it all, the end of the adventure she'd been so consumed by.  
>Maybe now she could stop chasing freedom, and embrace it, move beyond it, become it. Maybe now she could live the life she'd always wanted to, with Jack by her side and Will flitting between the worlds and Beckett no longer a threat. Maybe she could rest easy tonight.<p> 


	31. Chapter 31

**Hey! Okay so I /promise/ you will get what you've been waiting for next chapter! I just wanted to focus on Will this one, if y'all don't mind too much. But I promise, pinky promise, there will be romance in the next one between a certain two pirates! –winkwinknudgenudge- Please review, it makes my life when you do. and Ang, thanks so much, really, it means a lot that you take the time to review. I shall try to provide you the romantic sustenance you need to survive in the next chapter.**

** -Han**

A deafening cheer rose up through the pirates, rippling through their bodies like a shared euphoria they couldn't name, blind victory rushing through their bodies. Everything seemed sharper, the feel of the wind of their faces like a gentle caress that they realized they would have missed if they had died. The rocking of the Pearl was gentle, like that of a lullaby or a mother's voice or soothing words spoke to children with a fear of the dark.

"They're turning away!" Marty shouted from his position on the rigging as the armada began to turn, white sails disappearing back into a blanket of fog again. Another cheer, this one rougher, rouge's empting their lungs into the air to be heard and the other ships joined as the Pearl drifted closer to the rest of the pirate's fleet.

A sea of hats went flying into the air, rough voices of men mingling with the sound of waves lapping against the ship. Anna's voice joined them all, raw, feral joy breaking through any remaining grief she felt and she was taken away from her own body to be thrown into the waves. If she had a hat, she would have thrown it, so consumed by the shouts reverberating through every single ship. Her eyes flickered across each Captain standing tall and calm, the smiles hovering around the edges of each pirate's mouth and they couldn't eradicate them completely. She watched Captain Teague throw his hat lazily, while watching his son with almost proud eyes. Her eyes shifted to Jack, warm black meeting her blue and they were alone in the sea of deafening cheers and she wondered when this peace would end and they would have to face what she had said. She thought it could wait, and slung her arms around his neck, laughing freely and shallowly, as if not really believing it was over.

Her heart felt lighter when he recuperated, wrapping his arms around her waist and picking her up in a fluid motion, spinning them both freely at the helm, her legs swinging through the air and she was taller than him, for once. When her boots touched the deck again, her smile turned sad, she'd caught Will's eye across the water.

Captain William Turner of the Flying Dutchman watched his sister sadly, a pride in her rising in his chest and he wondered if she felt the same. The crew had taken to the lower deck, cheering and filing him with contentment at the thought of his new life. But he was leaving behind the two most important people to him. His eyes slid to his wife. He would get his day with her, would always hold her in his heart and be able to say goodbye. But his sister?

His father ambled towards him, clean face smiling in his direction. "Order's, sir?" he asked, as if he wasn't Will's father, just another sailor. Will didn't move from his position, his eyes still flicking between Elizabeth, the only woman he'd ever love, and his sister.

"You're no longer bound to the Dutchman. You're free," Will said softly, hearing the word and knowing he was bound, he was chained to this ship. But he found that it didn't bother him. It was as if he'd been made for the sea, but had been denying himself the truth. He wondered if this was how Anna felt.

"Aye, that's a fine thing, but, by my reckoning, I still have a debt that has to be paid," his father said wisely, regret mingling in his eyes with the joy of his own freedom. "If you'll have me," he added almost humbly.

"On the wheel Mister Turner," Will ordered in a soft voice, a grin flitting around the edges of his lips.

"Aye Captain Turner."

Will let his gaze wander and found his sister again, knowing that his day with Elizabeth was in front of him, he knew he had to say goodbye. Goodbye, the thought seemed so wrong to him it almost made him sick. Anna belonged by his side as surely as Elizabeth did and neither of them could go with him. Neither of them could sail with him. What if they were hurt? He swallowed, making eye contact with Anna and moved swiftly to the deck, a smile on his face.

"Lower the gangplank," he said quickly, the Pearl close enough to make it easy. They found the widest one, not bothering to question their new Captain. Anna knew what he was doing and detached herself from Jack, leaving him with a broken-hearted smile as she moved to say her final goodbye. Her limbs felt heavy, a reluctance to face any sort of end consuming her and she'd rather face a thousand British ships than give up the only family she had.

But she kept walking, numbness mingling with denial in her heart and she didn't want to think about facing her next adventure without Will by her side, the naïve romantic, the little boy, the noble one consumed by love. He'd grown, become something bigger, something real to her and someone she could only look up to. Gibbs' held up a hand for her to brace herself on as she climbed onto the gangplank, her body hovering close to the Pearl for a moment as she took in Will, already standing in the center, above the waves he now called home.

His brown eyes, warm and deep, were staring at her, not at Elizabeth or his father, but her. A sad smile stretched across his face and she wondered if he only tried for her sake. He looked older, worn around the edges and leaner, muscles rippling beneath the fabric of his shirt, that scar standing out. The darker flesh stood out to her eyes like sunlight on water, proof that he would never be the same. Proof that his chest was empty. Proof that they would probably never see each other again, she would never tell him bedtime stories when he had nightmares about his mother. They would never spar in the smithy, trading blows and victories. She would never listen to him talk of love, of life, of the world. She would never have her brother the same way again.

The thought made her eyes stung and suddenly she couldn't stand not being close to him. She ran across the gangplank meeting him in the center, above the churning waves and wrapped her arms around him, letting him pick her up on instinct and later she would wonder how the waves seemed to know to be gentle on them. Her face tucked into his neck and she breathed in the scent of metal and the sea, smells of the smithy never quiet able to wash off of his skin because he was a part of it. Tears burned her eyes and she felt like it would never be enough to just cry because there was a hole burning in her heart now, an empty chasm of feeling that only Will could fill with his own brand of himself, so sure of what was right and never willing to bend to another.

"Annie," he whispered almost pacifyingly, as if talking down a child who had awoken with a terror in his mind and in his heart. His hand stroked her hair like she used to when he cried, his other arm securely around her back, and he wondered why his footing felt so assured. They were held together by merely a thread, rolling waves almost inviting beneath their feet. he could feel the eyes of his new crew on him and those of the Pearl, but he didn't let go, only hid the few tears he shed from burning eyes for the loss of the only family he'd known since he was twelve.

That day seemed so long ago, back when he knew nothing about her past and it didn't matter to him. All that mattered was the way she protected him and the way he'd tried and failed and tried again to protect her. Maybe this time he succeeded. And he felt just a bit prouder of himself.

"I'm going to miss you so much," she whispered, as if he didn't already know it, but she had to say it anyway. Her voice sounded thick, like she was struggling behind walls of emotions that she would never understand.

"I'll never be too far," he promised, the words rushing to her heart and she wondered if it was too much to believe him, to hope for it to be true. Her grip tightened and she nodded dumbly.

"You've grown up so much," she voiced her earlier thoughts, pride seeping into it and she wanted him to know. "So so much."

"But you'll always be the elder sister," he said assuredly, as though it was only common knowledge and she pulled back to smile at him brightly, the strength of it almost taking him back. But she rarely surprised him anymore.

"And you the younger, naïve little boy," she teased, the smile refusing to leave as her eyes found the scar on his chest. It lingered there for a moment and her eyes turned sad, the grin frozen in place until he reached out to tilt her chin back up to meet her eyes.

It suddenly occurred to her that it would be true. He would never age, stuck in his body forever to sail the seas. He really would always be young, always be an immortalized version of himself. At least she didn't have to worry about his death, Elizabeth would take care of his heart, of that she was sure.

"Not bad for a pair of fools, eh?" Will asked to tear her from her thoughts, looking down at her with a kind of warmth she wished she could return, but her eyes found the scar again and her face fell into a bleak, darker place.

"But at what price?" she whispered, eyes forlorn and shameful. "I should have kept you safe," she muttered dejectedly, her eyes swimming with another round of tears she wished she could unleash with no restraint.

"It's nothing I can't pay," he assured, and she thought his eyes looked calm and wise, like he'd seen so many years, lived so much longer than her. "You cannot fault yourself."

"But it's what I'm good at," she said sadly, a stray tear marking its presence as it traced its way down her cheek. She hugged his body closer to her, trying not to focus on the way her breathing was shaky and her hands numb, her heart pumping as if to make the guilt pump faster.

"But I'm alive," he said, again that wisdom rising in him like it was meant to be there. "I'm alive."

Brother and sister suffocated the other into an embrace on the gangplank between the Black Pearl and the Flying Dutchman, the waves gentle and sorrowful beneath them as they whispered goodbye's they could only wish wouldn't be permanent. Anna's knuckles were white as she gripped the man she knew as the only brother she'd ever had and couldn't hold back the flow of tears that greeted her. "I'll miss you so much," Anna whispered, her head shaking of its own accord. "I love you, little brother."

"As I love you."

Xx

The sun reflected off of the water as the gangplank was pulled in, each sibling on their respective ships, separated by so much more than just water. Will smiled sadly, an expression not lost on his father, and the older man watched with regret as his son mourned the loss of two women. His eyes slid to his wife, golden Elizabeth shone like the sun as she awkwardly embraced Anna, both women glancing back at the Dutchman with forlorn eyes.

"She could come with you," Bill Turner spoke up, watching the brunette. "The princess."

"She'll stay with Jack, where she belongs," Will said strongly, pride in his eyes. "And she'll have an adventure and freedom, something this ship could not give her."

His eyes slid to Elizabeth again, watching the way the sunlight hit her blonde hair and remembering all the days he woke up next to her, that year before the wedding. He remembered the way the sunlight would filter through the window and cast a glow on her tan skin, like it was lit by the touch of angel's. And her face would crinkle into laughter when he told her that. He remembered every stolen moment, every second-long kiss, every breath in and out. Every night filled with dreamless sleep, leg's intertwined and arms wrapped around the body until he wasn't sure where he ended and she started.

It would be lost.

"This ship has a purpose again," Bill agreed, following his line of sight and remembered the face of his own wife he'd left behind so many years before. "And where we are bound, she cannot come," he said, referring to Elizabeth now, watching the way his son looked at her like she was the sun itself, and to him, maybe she was. "One day ashore, ten years at sea. It's a steep price for what's been done," his father admitted sadly, regret and guilt coloring his voice and he wished he could have stopped it, could have done anything to save the man he knew to be his son. The one who had sacrificed everything for him.

Will smiled softly, eyes warm and gentle on his wife, as if his gaze could leave a smoldering touch she would feel. He watched her walk away from Anna and up towards Barbossa, making the last request she would ever make of him, of any of them aboard the Pearl. He traced her form, memorizing the way she moved, the way she sighed into the wind. He thought about all the night's he'd snuck into her room, just to curl around her, sleeping by her side to protect her from the terrors that roamed the night. All the times he had to fight himself from tracing rough fingers across her skin and let himself be lit aflame and consume. The smile her wore bordered on a smirk as he thought of the light, breathy sounds she would make when he pulled away, determined to wait until he could call her his completely. The day had come, just one day among many, that he could reinvent to end beautifully.

"Depends on the day."


	32. Chapter 32

**Hey Guys! I'm sorry it's been so long, I just wanted to be positive that this chapter came out right. Thanks to everyone who reviewed, you mean so so so much to me, it's not even funny. Shout out to CFEditor who edited this for me and everything. Also, there is gonna be one (maybe two) more chapters left, and then….i leave you for a week. To return with….BEYOND FREEDOM, the fourth installment. You are very welcome. **

**-Han**

The Black Pearl seemed subdued, silence blanketing the sailors as they watched Elizabeth prepare to leave, eyes casting over everyone as if to memorize their faces. Heads dipped in something like respect as she offered soft smiles, glad to be gone, sure she would never really fit in here. A hand on her shoulder stopped her, and she turned back to look at Anna gently. She'd tried to hug the woman after Anna said goodbye to Will, but the awkwardness had killed her, seeping into her chest until it felt alien and wrong to offer comfort.

"I know we were never friends," Anna said quietly, looking like it was just as uncomfortable for her to speak. "But I trust you to take care of Will, I trust you," she said as if it was the greatest thing she could tell Elizabeth, and maybe it was.

"Thank you for marrying us," Elizabeth said softly, a slight smile on her full lips. Anna shrugged, as if to say it was nothing. "And I hope things work out the way you want them to," she added, her eyes flicking to Jack down the line. The pirate Captain had his head tilted away from them, as if to offer some form of privacy, and his eyes were on the rolling waves just off the ship.

"One can only hope," Anna muttered, mostly to herself as she watched the pirate that could never be hers. Never be hers because he was supposed to be free and how could she be with him while he still was? But she didn't want to chain him down, she just wanted to stand beside him.

"If it means anything, I think if he would do it for anyone, it would be for you," Elizabeth said softly, watching the eyes of the woman before her turn a subdued shade of blue, blocking out all other emotions behind a wall nigh impenetrable. Anna only nodded stoically and forced herself to hug the slightly younger woman awkwardly, arms trying to convey some sort of friendship she only distantly felt.

She felt it returned with the same distant regret, for a friendship never had, a sisterhood lost amongst the waves, a life lived swimming in grudged dislike. Now they would never know what could have been and neither felt much about it, and maybe that should make them feel shame. But they were only ever linked through Will, and that was enough.

"Goodbye, Elizabeth," Anna whispered, letting her arms drop from her sides and watching the blonde prepare to move on down the line and be embraced by those who might actually miss her.

"Goodbye, Annie," she whispered, the nickname dripping from her tongue with awkward familiarity, but Anna smiled at the attempt. The newlywed moved on, walking with her head held high towards Gibbs.

"Your chariot awaits," Gibbs said with a proud sweep of his arm. His broad smile dropped slightly at Elizabeth's amused look. "The oars are inside."

She smiled softly at him and moved on, her mind clinging to the memories of them all she knew she would treasure. Elizabeth knew she would never see them again, and suddenly all the distaste and mistrust she'd ever harbored was gone and she was new and reborn before them. She wondered why it took her so long to see that they were just people, people with a purpose and with freedom in their veins.

"Mrs. Turner," Barbossa said lightly, the only goodbye she would ever get and it was enough for her. The name made warmth blossom in her chest and spread outwards, filling her completely and she didn't think she would ever tire of hearing it.

"Goodbye, Poppet," Pintel said sadly, yellow eyes cast down. She remembered her first adventure, how scared she was. Elizabeth gave him and Ragetti a soft smile, one she hoped they would appreciate.

Finally she was at the end of the line, and the only one left was Jack. His back was straight, eyes flicking between her and Anna as he watched the brunette climb the rigging and hide herself away in the crow's nest. He wondered why she was running away, hiding herself away from him and the world, when everything was about to get so much better. He resolved to leave her there, let her think over what she had to.

"Jack, it never would have worked between us," Elizabeth said, throwing Jack's own words back at him from so long ago and Jack grinned, only able to remember the feeling of Anna's lips on his.

"I reckon you're right," he said softly, a soft smile rising to his features at the memory and Elizabeth only fixed him with a knowing look. She leaned in, as if to kiss his cheek, but he stepped back, hands raised defensively. "Once was quite enough, thank you."

"Thank you," she said softly, and she meant for everything. Everything Jack had ever done for them, and it felt like so much, now that it was over. The pirate inclined his head, eyes already shifting to the crow's nest, watching for movement.

Anna relaxed back into the small space, eyes on the sky as if expecting another storm. Her arms wrapped around her knees, mind racing. She didn't want to face Jack, not when she knew the inevitable was coming faster than she could comprehend. She didn't want to have to hear him say that he didn't love her. She didn't want to face the pain and the rejection.

Her eyes scrunched shut in dejection. How could she stay on the Pearl with that swirling between them? They wouldn't be able to function. They wouldn't be able to move around each other knowing that Anna loved him and he didn't feel the same. And on nights when Jack got lonely and they were nowhere near a port, she imagined Jack would call her to him and she would go and let him use her.

She didn't want to be that weak, just a throwaway threadbare doll for Jack to play with when he felt like it. She liked to believe that he wouldn't do that, wouldn't use her at his whim. But he was a pirate, a pirate with a lust for freedom and rum and the horizon and _women. _And she would never be enough to quell that lust in his chest, no matter how much she wanted to.

Her decision made, she let her head tip back, intent to wait for darkness before she moved. She only hoped that Jack didn't try to come to her before then. She didn't think she could refuse him if he did.

Xx

The sun was setting on the island, waves lapping almost sadly at the shore. Will met the sunrise with sad, but sated eyes, as if this one day would be enough to get him through the next ten years. And maybe it would. Maybe that was all he needed when he knew he loved the woman that was waiting for him.

He slipped on his boot, recalling every memory of Elizabeth on their journeys. He'd always loved her, even when they didn't talk, when he thought she loved Jack, when they hated each other. He always loved her.

"I'm gonna need the other one," he said with a teasing smirk. Elizabeth presented her leg to him provocatively, his boot emphasizing the smooth tan of her visible skin. Will's smirk turned scorching, fire once again running through his veins as he turned to her. His rough fingers skimmed across the boot's leather, finding hold in the bend of her knee. His head bent, lips brushing over her thigh and drawing downward as his hand removed the boot. His lips glided over her tan skin, leaving trails of fire burning through to her heart. Elizabeth's head tipped back, lips parted slightly in the slowly fading sunlight.

He pulled away, regret flooding through his body and he wished he could have all night. All night to show her he loved her under the stars. But he couldn't. He slipped on his boot and stood, his eyes tracing the horizon like it could give him the answers to the world. "It's nearly sunset."

He moved forward, towards the longboat and the lapping waves and his destiny. He paused at the beating of his own heart, thumping inside the wooden chest while it should be in his own. His chest didn't feel empty. Too consumed by the love he felt for the woman that would be forever waiting for him. The one that would always hold his heart.

"It's always belonged to you," he whispered, his eyes tracing the black chest with sorrow in his eyes. He didn't want to leave her, leave her alone to face the world without him to protect her. Without him to stand as the knight in shining armor that would always take the weight of the world for her. "Will you take care of it?" he asked, because he had to ask, had to be sure that he could leave his love to be faithful. To love him back. Because some nights, when he lay awake under stars, he wondered what he did to deserve such a woman, one who loved him. He didn't deserve her.

"Yes, Will, yes," she breathed, moving close to him until she could feel his breath on her skin, the only assurance he was still there. He felt like a mirage, an image that wasn't really there and she couldn't reach out to kiss him. She felt herself leading forward, wishing to brush her lips against his and capture them with the passion she felt in her chest.

Will turned away, pain in his chest burning through his blood and everything felt far away. He started walking, each step a burden and he felt like his heart was being torn out over and over and over again. Every second lasted a lifetime, and suddenly he hated the world. Hated it for all the injustices it passed against him and he understood the vicious anger in Jones' heart. Will knew his only tether to keep back the wall of hate was Elizabeth.

"Will!" she shouted, rushing at him and he spun to catch her. Arms wrapping around each other like they would die without the other and maybe they would. Maybe the only reason they kept coming back, kept rushing back into the folds of adventure time after time, was because they needed each other to survive. Their lips locked, one more time for ten years, ten long years of waiting and pain and times they would doubt each other and their purpose. But they would always come back. Of that they were certain.

"Keep a weather eye on the horizon," Will whispered against her lips, eyes scorching into hers. He turned away, and Elizabeth waited on the beach until she couldn't see him anymore, eyes sad and empty and she wondered if he took her heart with him, and left his behind. Maybe they traded hearts to be sure their love would be carried on with the other, never dying and strong. Elizabeth knew she would never forget Will, never stop loving him, never leave him. She would always be waiting for her love to come home to her.

Xx

Anna could see the green flash from the crow's nest. She could see it lighting up the sky and piercing through her heart and suddenly losing her brother seemed all too real. Felt all too close to her heart and she wondered how many hits her heart could take before it cracked and broke and splintered out into her chest and she would only be a shell of the pirate she was.

She made herself move, made herself exit the crow's nest and climb down the rigging, rope biting into her skin. She made herself face the next knife through her heart, through her soul. She had to talk to Jack.

Her boots touched the deck and she realized it was quiet, the sun slipping below the horizon and no movement on the deck as sailors drank their way into dreams and realms of victorious bliss. She scrubbed a hand over her face, her hand running through her slightly tangled hair and she wondered if she could avoid Jack altogether. She'd already made up her mind, made her choice. She knew what she was going to do and she didn't have to see Jack to do it.

But she owed it to him. After everything they'd been through together, every hit they'd taken and every obstacle they'd faced, she owed him a goodbye. She knocked lightly on the Captain's cabin, fear burning in her chest and she felt like she did every time she faced her father. But Jack wouldn't hurt her.

She heard a grunt from the other side of the door and she forced herself to reach out again, gripping the handle tightly. She pulled it open, eyes on the ground as she stepped inside, shadows slipping from her body as she moved into the candlelight

Jack was bent over his desk, empty rum bottles crowding over his map. His head jerked up as she made her way inside. "So you've finally come down, eh?" he asked lightly, as if he hadn't been waiting. As if he hadn't been drinking away his inhibitions so that maybe he could tell her what they both needed to hear out loud.

"Yeah, I'm here," she said lamely, her shoulders too stiff and her back too straight. Jack stood, not even stumbling as he started to walk towards her. "I-I wanted to talk," she started.

"Aye?" he asked, urging her onward and he watched her blue eyes flicker with some unnamed emotion and find the ground again.

"Y-You heard what I said?" she asked softly, mumbled because a part of her hoped he hadn't. He'd heard her. It was the reason he'd moved, the reason he'd gripped Will's hand and moved it downward towards the heart, the reason he let the splintered sword pierce Jones. "You know I love you," she whispered, her voice quivering.

"Aye," Jack whispered, as if speaking loudly would break the spell some God had cast on them, making them soft and vulnerable and he could feel his armor slipping away and he was okay with it. He opened his mouth to speak, to voice some undeniable truth, one that had been hidden in his chest too deeply to even know the name of.

"Y-you don't have to say it," Anna whispered, taking a step back, her boot clicking too loudly on his floor. "It's okay." She offered a weak smile, breaking around the edges and water was swimming in her eyes. Jack took a step forward, his head shaking.

"Love, I need to say it," he whispered, his dark eyes swimming with emotions she couldn't understand and all she felt was the pain in her chest.

"It's okay, Jack," she repeated, her head shaking and hair shading her eyes to hide her pain. Pain rising her stomach and in her chest and it was gripping her heart like a vice and she was breaking. Bit by bit, she was falling apart in front of Jack. A tear slipped from her eye, tracing down her cheek as if to mark the sorrow in her heart.

"No, you don't understand," Jack pressed, frustration leaking into his voice and he felt himself reaching out. His rough hand brushed across her jaw, gripping her chin and making her look his way. His breathing caught when he saw her red eyes, the barely hidden pain in their depths. "I _care _for you…I-I don't want you to die," he tried to explain, unwilling to say the word that would make him anything less than himself. But maybe it wouldn't. Maybe she wouldn't tie him down, only stand beside him and they might only make each other stronger.

"But you don't love me," Anna finished, her eyes swimming against her will. What happened to the strong woman she'd become? She was cracking and the little girl beneath the armor was showing through, Jack could see her. A sad smile rose to her lips as she stepped away from Jack's outstretched hand. "It's okay, birdie."

"No, you're not _listening_," Jack growled, knocking a rum bottle onto the floor. Anna watched the glass shatter onto the wood, making exotic patterns she wished she could interpret like Calypso did her bones. If she could, she'd read out the destiny the Gods had written for her.

"I said it's okay, Jack," Anna pressed, frustration pulsing through her body and she wanted this to hurt less. It hurt too much, too strong and fiery in her blood to keep facing. "I'm going to go back on deck, get off in Tortuga. Find my own adventure," she said softly.

"_No!" _Jack shouted before he could control himself and panic was rushing through him, something he hadn't felt in so long. He felt despair and emptiness and fear and pain. It was foreign, and it made him feel weak. When had she gotten so close, close enough to hurt him?

"Why not?" Anna questioned, vulnerability masked by anger. "Why can't I leave, Jack?" she asked, gaining volume as Jack refused to meet her eyes. "Jack, answer me. Why not?" she nearly shouted, desperation clear in her voice and she could feel the tears biting at her eyes, the pain clawing at her chest. And all she could do was turn it against Jack in a moment of frantic anger and need.

"_**Because I love you!"**_


	33. Chapter 33

**Hey Guys! This is short, but I'm proud of it, and the romance makes me happy :3 Thanks to all the reviewers, you guys are fantastic. We have ONE more chapter left, and then my week hiatus to prepare for the fourth one. because there WILL be a fourth one. Don't forget to review, guys!**

** -Han**

Jack's heart was beating too fast, the pounding reverberating through his senses and he felt frozen, hung in the air like glass ready to impact the floor and shatter. He'd never said those words out loud before, never even thought them, because love was dangerous, love was foreign and always out of his reach. He didn't deserve to love anything but the ever-changing sea, as long as it would have him. But he'd said it. The words had passed his lips and there was no taking them back.

He was breathing too harshly, his chest moving up and down as if he'd been running, fighting, chasing. Frustration and anger and- _love _rolled around in his body together, threatening to burst out of his chest and leave him to succumb to the pain left behind. He wondered if he was even still alive, if he'd really died on the Dutchman and been sucked down into the maelstrom, same as Jones. Nothing felt real.

The air around him was heavy, but distant, as if he couldn't get enough into his lungs, and his body was dying from it. The colors in front of his eyes were blurred and fuzzy and the only clear image was Anna.

Her eyes were wide, the blue of her iris was darker than normal, an almost royal blue, something that would have made Jack snigger at any other moment. Her dusky lips were slightly agape, as if trying to form words but nothing would come out. Her body was stiff, still bent backwards slightly from her trying to back towards the door.

A part of Jack hated that he found her so beautiful, a vixen, a siren to call him to rough waters and he'd succumb and be killed. Her eyes were too bright, her body too lithe and strong, her movements to fluid, her lips too soft. He hated that she was changing him without doing anything. He hated that he would come when she called, that he would follow her to the ends of the earth, that he would save her if she needed saving, that he would sacrifice his immortality on her insistence.

Jack Sparrow hated that he loved her. Hated that he loved the way she smirked at him, a coy twitch of dusky lips. He hated that he loved the way she laughed at everything he said, as if everything he did was done in good humor. He loved the way she fought dirty, never averse to going as far as she needed to. He loved the way she talked with her hands, the way she drank rum with him, the way she adored the stars, the way she could open up her own soul to him and trust him not to hurt her. He loved the way her eyes lit up when they fell on the waves, the way she loved her brother, the way she kept her promise to save him, the way she stuck by him through everything. He loved watching her come back to herself after the year spent with her father, growing back into the off-kilter pirate he'd come to know.

"Wh-what?" Anna breathed; seeming to come to life again as she suddenly took a step back. Jack thought she looked lost, confused, dazed. Her breathing was as rough and uneven as his, as if she'd been holding her breath and was now gasping for air. Her head shook slightly, of its own accord, and she was falling away. She was drowning in the frail hope that she'd heard him right, that what he'd shouted at her was what she thought she heard.

Jack was moving forward, pinning her swiftly against the wall, arms caging her within his warmth. His dark, bottomless eyes found hers and she felt like they were scorching her soul and driving her into walls of flams she was unaccustomed to. Jack hated that the almost frightened look she gave him made shivers roll down his spine. He hated the way he couldn't control his own body, yearning for her to be closer, immeasurably closer.

And the truth was, he thought distantly as he closed the distance at his body's command and crushed his mouth to hers, that he didn't hate her at all.

Kissing Jack was different than the first time; this time she had the opportunity to kiss back. The feel of his soft lips on hers, urging her onward, had her heart crashing in her chest. She could feel everything, ever swish of fabric as Jack moved to cup the back of her neck, rough skin pressing into hers. She could feel the passion flowing through her body until she couldn't stop herself from kissing him back, moving with him and praying that he could feel the love she held in her heart through the kiss. She thought she believed him, believed that he loved her, as they kissed. It hit bone deep, a connection she couldn't describe, but one she knew she never wanted to sever. She felt like she'd found home among the crashing waves of loneliness and fear. She felt like she'd found protection, happiness, love.

Love, a word Jack Sparrow had sworn to never say to a woman, and now it was flowing through him and pouring into the kiss and he could only hope she understood. His other arm had moved to wrap around her back, crushing her closer to his body and he could faintly hear the swords at both of their hips meet in a metallic clang that caused him to smirk into the kiss. She'd moved subtly, her fingers knotting into the sea-stained cotton of his shirt sleeves, her head tilting slightly upwards.

Neither could explain the feelings burning in their chests, too unaccustomed to bliss to comprehend what was happening to them. They were two beings, torn of armor and weapons, left barren to the swirling waters of a home unstable, protected by each other, a fire burning between them. Anna could feel the glow of the flames against her skin, and she wasn't afraid, even as her scars weighed on her mind and she remembered the way the ship had burned when she was fourteen. This fire made her heart race and her blood boil and her soul react in ways she'd never thought it could. She'd thought she understood how much she loved Jack, but really it was endless, depthless. Like the sea.

They broke away as one, breathing stuttering and ragged, the only sound in the night surrounding them, the gentle sway of the ship lulling them in their silence. Anna's eyes flickered open, seeming unwilling to break the spell cast on them, hushing them with the gentle touches of magic.

"I love you," she whispered, as if saying it enough times would help her understand it, help her come to terms with the emotion coursing through her veins. Jack smiled softly, an expression Anna had rarely seen and one she promised herself she wouldn't forget. She nuzzled into Jack's chest, her arms wrapping around his neck as if he was her life line, the only thing keeping her from being swept away by the riptide. She swallowed and sighed shakily, caution rising in her system as she recalled that he was a pirate first, and a man second. "I know this might not work," she said softly.

Jack's body stiffened and he prayed that she would drop it. Prayed that she wouldn't try to break this peace with the uncertainties of tomorrow; the fears. She pulled back slightly and looked at him calmly, the blue of her eyes subdued and contented.

"I know we'll fight," she said, her voice gaining strength. "I know we'll both upset some part of this, one of us might stumble. But…I-I want to try, Jack." He could see her eyes tearing up around the edges as she offered up her heart and her soul to the pirate before her. "I want to try."

He kissed her again, just a touch. Barely there, a whisper of skin on skin that communicated everything Jack could never put into words. He pulled back with sincerity in the depths of his black eyes. "If I can adore the sea for all its misgivings, faults, and uncertainties, I can love you," he whispered, and it sounded like a promise, something eternal and binding.

Anna understood that things wouldn't be like the fairytale love Will and Elizabeth had. Jack wouldn't change from the roughish pirate he was, he wouldn't stop fighting and being free. Neither of them would be free with 'I love you's, the words only afforded to the other on dark nights when wound around the other, whispered in the night while the other slept. They would be themselves, both refusing to be restricted by any chains love may carry. Jack would still be free to fly, and Anna free to chase the freedom she'd always wanted, maybe even go beyond it.

"Jack?" she asked, still breathless, still aching for air and for Jack. Her head felt fuzzy where only Jack was clear and he was everything. The world.

"Aye?" he asked huskily, his body pressing against hers again, making her breathing hitch and all she wanted was to kiss him again. She leaned in, pausing just above his inviting lips, her body begging her to lean in. Jack could feel her presence just a breath away from his skin, his arms still wrapped around her back. The look in her eyes made him shiver, and it felt like her gaze was burning a hole in him. He felt like he never had with any other woman, and that was his proof that he loved her. Everything felt new, sharp, clear, as if waking from a nightmare to find reality comforting. As if coming home.

A coy smile rose to his lips in anticipation of what she might say next, thoughts rushing through his mind and he loved the way every one of them ended. He loved the way every fantasy played out and all he had to do was wait for the words to pass her lips and then crush his mouth to hers again, and again, and again. He didn't think he'd ever tire of the feeling. His breathing hitched in anticipation, eyes closed in a haze of bliss.

"Got any more rum?"


	34. Chapter 34

**LAST CHAPTER! I would really really really like some final reviews on this and then I'm gone for ONE WEEK, before taking it back and finishing it off with Beyond Freedom. Thank you so so much for all the support through this, the great reviews and kind words. Everything you guys have given me, means so incredibly much. Thank you guys, I really can't thank you enough.**

** -Han**

Tortuga seemed to glint in the sun, the harbor before it reflecting bright morning light into Anna's eyes. She breathed deeply, eyes scanning the hung-over crew on deck and the city of sin they were approaching. She braced herself against the railing, her eyes drifting to the water almost against her own will, tracing the lapping waves like they could tell her secrets. Her mind flicked back to the night before, a smile rising to her face at the thought. First they were drinking, washing away memories they would rather forget and living eternally in bliss disguised as amber liquid. And when the moon hung above them like a pendulum preparing to swing, the celebration started among the crew, screeching music in place of a tune floating down to them until Anna couldn't stay still. They could hear the stomping boots of the men on deck, laughing away their worries with drink and living without fear for the first time in months. They deserved it.

So Anna had hauled Jack up, the man dizzy with his drink, and bid him to dance, bright smile refusing to die on her lips, even when he tried to kiss it away. The grin was contagious and soon they were swirling around each other like idiots around a fire, like drunks in Tortuga, like small children in the streets. When they'd gotten too dizzy to stand, she'd fallen into his bed, laughing like she'd been told a secret. She'd expected, in some sober part of her mind, for Jack to move towards her, take her up in his arms and kiss her until fire burned through her veins. But he'd only ambled to his chair and sat down, holding onto the bottle like he would stay up later. Anna let him, too far gone on rivers of alcohol to give it more than a passing thought.

The next morning, she'd found him asleep in that position; head down on his desk, fingers still gripping his bottle. She'd grinned to herself and walked quietly from the room, shutting the door quietly behind her with a whisper of three words she knew she would rarely say out loud to him. It wouldn't be like Will and Elizabeth, drowning each other in 'I love you's would only make them feel trapped. It would be enough for them to know, taboo to speak too often, but they would _know. _

At the sound of still-drunken footfalls on the steps, Anna allowed herself to grin, keeping to staring at the water absently. They still at the helm, and she wondered if Jack was gazing at the wheel like he should go to it, a home he could grip with his hands and turn to his choosing.

"Ever a fine day for adventure, eh love?" Jack asked to her instead, moving to stand next to her and watch water lap against the ship. Barbossa's shouting on deck me their ears before she could answer and a dangerously coy look made its way into her eyes. She could see Jack flinch from the corner of her eye at the sound of the other Captain's harsh demanding orders, forcing the crew out of their stupor and into motion. She could tell he wanted the older man gone, away from his ship because he couldn't take the possibility of it being stolen again.

"I think it's a might time Barbossa had his own," she said conspiringly, a spark in the blue of her eyes that made them look deep, like the sea. Jack wondered if he would ever grow to fear that look the way he knew Gibbs feared his own, feared the promise of adventure mingled with rash decisions and danger. But Jack Sparrow wasn't afraid of anything, after all. He could handle the plans of the lass next to him, and she would always be next to him, willing to follow him like he would be willing to follow her.

They moved as one body, something Barbossa was unaccustomed to when every pirate fought for only himself and his interests. But these two were fluid, lighting sparks beneath the crew with quick words and quicker movements, swords drawn and pointed at his chest, and Barbossa wondered if they knew of his plan to leave them in Tortuga, to steal the ship. To sail into a sunrise that would envelope him in a new adventure.

It seemed like seconds, less than that even, and he was faced with both of their swords, as if they had planned the way they parted the crowd on opposite sides of the helm, turning the crew against him with quick words and standing before him with hard eyes. Eyes that spoke of determination tinged with regret and some part of his crass body knew that Jack didn't want to do what he was doing. Didn't believe in mutiny because he'd suffered it and knew what it was like to have to watch your home sail away.

"It's not personal," Anna said with kinder eyes, the blue clouded with a mixture of regret and assurance. She would do this anyway, but a part of her would miss the older man and his strange humor. "And it's not much of a swim," she added with a slight smirk.

"S'a gesture I'm not likely to forget," he said with a dignified bow, tempted to reach for his sword anyway, battle his way out and jump ship to retain a bit of pride.

The crew parted as one, a section breaking off to retrieve the plank with cheerful faces, jeering whispers and smiles passed amongst them and they knew what kind of Captain Barbossa was. The long plank of wood spoke volumes to Pintel and Ragetti, and they remembered when it was Jack on the end, Jack staring into Caribbean waters with broken eyes, Jack they left behind. They knew they were making the right choice, this time.

Barbossa's steps echoed around them as Jack and Anna came to stand at the front of the crowd, watching him reach the edge. He turned back to face them, expecting jeering last words or some prophetic epithet to drip from lips like they were reading a verse from their own version of the bible, proclaiming him a heretic in their eyes.

Jack was smiling, something that had refused to die on his lips since the night before and it was something he found fit him. He was tired of wearing deep looks of worry and sorrow and madness. He was ready to be himself, on his own ship, on his own home. He was ready to sail beyond the edges of the horizon, beyond freedom itself and find something just a bit greater.

"Well Hector, I believe I'm assured in sayin' that our time together has been disparaging, abhorrent, and all aroun' dreadful. I highly doubt you'll merit an invitation to my garden party, mate, and it'd probably be superlative for us all if you just left us," Jack said amiably, not traces of bitterness in his voice.

"But ain't it a shame to be losin' somethin' so fine lads?" Anna spoke up, moving forward slightly, a smirk on her lips as she repeated the words Barbossa had spoken on their first adventure, when Elizabeth stood in his place and she was waiting in line. Now the man glared at her, though humor mixed in his eyes. "So I'll be havin' them charts before you go," she said with a threatening twitch of her sword.

Barbossa's smirk dropped and he growled low in his throat, reaching into his coat to pull them out and toss them to her. She caught them deftly, surprised by the weight and turned her attention back to the man standing above sparkling, inviting water.

"Suppose this means you were first to the finish," Barbossa commented, his gaze on Jack as the younger man nodded triumphantly. "It was a fine match, just the same."

The crew pressed in, weapons drawn and he turned back to face the harbor, Tortuga in sight. A moment held still between them all and Anna took the moment to slip her hand into Jack's the rough skin a comfort to her as Captain Barbossa dove into the lapping waves. The crew seemed frozen, eyes on the former Captain as he swam on towards the sleeping city.

"Well?" Jack asked suddenly, demandingly, as he pulled his hand from Anna's and faced the crew. "Move you mangy dogs!"

A flurry of movement greeted his words as men split apart from the whole to work. Gibbs passed him with a mischievous glance between him and Anna, a spark in his eyes that spoke of many stories he would be telling soon, spreading gossip like wildfire among the pirates of the sea. Jack Sparrow was a taken man. The thought alone might drive some maidens to their end.

Anna rolled her eyes at the look and turned back towards the helm, steps slow as if taking in everything again, like she'd been born new. Her hand slid easily on the railing of the stairs and she remembered the way it had blown apart beneath her fingers before, the way fear had pumping through her veins when now there was only content. She was a wanderer who'd finally found a home. Home amongst the waves that belonged to the Goddess once more, the waves her brother would sail on for eternity, riding the green flash there and back again.

She felt Jack's presence behind her and turned to him, a smile on her lips that fit back where it belonged, where she had been without it for so long, now. This was elation, joy in her chest that could take her anywhere, let her do anything. This was a hand to hold and a body to wrap herself around and an adventure to be explored. A new world of possibilities neither had thought existed.

"What great adventure should we face next?" she asked lightly, coming to stand beside him at the wheel, watching as he moved the Pearl with gentle touches until she faced the empty horizon once more. He gave a long look at the charts still tucked under her arm and she smiled, taking the hint. Both bent over the ever-shifting maps as she laid them out, hands reaching out to turn the pieces to line up with another destination.

Anna's blue eyes met his black with excitement, a question to if they would pursue it. Jack grinned, nodding to her as it sank in. There is more than one way to live forever, he thought to himself as he gazed down at yellowed papyrus, La Florida in his sights and the glowing cup.

"The Fountain of Youth?" she asked, mounting eagerness building in her voice and Jack recognized the spark in her eyes as one he wore in his own. He wondered if she knew he considered the gaze smoldering, teasing, like she was running her fingers down his back lazily, a coy smile on her lips. He wondered if she knew that every time she glanced his way he thought of a hooded gaze tinged with sated lust that would make shivers roll down his spine. He wondered if she knew how much restraint it took for him to sit at his desk with his hand wrapped around his bottle and not curl himself around her body. He feared his own straying hands.

He pulled himself back to the present and adopted a smirk, meeting her eyes and trying to quell the lust burning in his chest, the passion he could let loose between them both. Trying to stop the spark before it caught and the flames would caress their skin and burn them to embers of bonded lovers bathed in the warm glow of a sunlight that had risen in their souls.

"It's another horizon," Jack said with an almost conspiring grin. They stood as one, moving back towards the wheel as Jack fished for his compass, bringing it up with a wink in her direction.

He watched the needle spin, and wondered if it would keep going, like it had for months before, endlessly spinning with no direction and he would feel lost among the waves of his own life, unsure of where to go or what to do. When it stopped his head tilted in confusion, annoyance seeping in a moment later.

"You're messin' with my bloody compass," he said with a grunt, his face scrunching up in exasperation. Anna turned back towards him, honest surprise coloring her features as her eyes landed on the little black needle, pointed towards her.

"I am?" she asked curiously, her own head tilting causing tangles of brown hair to fall into her face in a fashion Jack would never admit he found adorable. He moved closer to her, his body pressing hers into the wheel in one fluid motion. He couldn't help but love the way she trusted him, the way she allowed him to take control, press her back into a corner and had faith he would take care of her. He'd never known a woman who was willing to place that kind of irrevocable trust in him, willing to follow him anywhere.

"Aye," he whispered huskily, leaning in and trapping her mouth in a kiss, one that made passion burn white-hot and flow through them both. He could feel her hands moving up to his shoulders as she rose up on her toes to meet him easier, eyes closing in easy bliss. It felt like the space between them was too much, like they should be connected at the soul, the heart, every part of their bodies molded together until they were one being. The felt like they had the wind on their side for the first time since a storm, the sun shining on their skin, and the stars to guide them to a home of welcoming arms, ready to envelope them and make them feel loved.

Jack hadn't known a pirate could love, could feel a warming of his chest and a singing of his heart like a siren's call. He could only pray that it wouldn't cause Anna's end among the rocks his call could lead her to. Anna was smiling, and Jack could feel it as they kissed, something that made his chest burn with something he couldn't even define. She _trusted _him, the pirate with a girl in every port and smile that could make any woman weak at the knees. She trusted him with her heart and as he cupped her chin, he promised himself he wouldn't break it. He wouldn't stumble, or fall into anything other than her arms. He wouldn't tame himself, or clip his wings. He would only remember that he had another bird to fly next to him, catching the wind and chasing the horizon.

When they pulled away, loud cheers greeted them, a sound Anna could only explain as the mirror to her own heart, her own blood pumping victoriously and with something that she still couldn't explain. A combination of joy, fear, trust, and love all swirling together until her head felt fuzzy and her limbs shaky. This world was new to her, new to them both. She could only hope that she wouldn't break this, break anything.

She ducked her head away, a blush rising on her cheeks as bits of the crew clapped and shouted like the drunken sailors they were. Her face buried into his chest, breathing in the scent of rum and salt water, the intoxicating fragrance making her heart beat even faster.

"Back to work you bilge rats!" Jack shouted, an arm thrown almost protectively over Anna's back as the crew turned away. She looked up at him, a soft look in her eyes that Jack could swear he would get used to seeing. He could get used to waking up next to her, seeing her across his ship, battling beside her, chasing horizons with her.

He moved her with gentle touches, turning her around in his arms until she face the wheel, his body still pressed against hers. His hands cradled hers, rough skin against the soft tan of her own and moved them to the spokes. A breathless look over her shoulder let him know she understood how much it meant for him to do it. His way of showing he trusted her too.

"_Dadada…dadada," _he hummed, checking his compass again with an almost careless glance, not really caring where they went, as long as they were going together. He adjusted her hands lightly, pushing them in the right direction, the horizon in their sights. "_And really bad eggs."_

Anna grinned, that elation bubbling over into her smile and her grip was tight on the wheel as she steered, something she'd never even considered, never even hoped for. She could feel Jack against her, one hand on top of hers, whether to keep contact with her or to steer her right, she didn't know, or care. All that mattered was that they were together, pirates like she'd always wanted with freedom coursing through her veins like the sea water surrounding them. And it didn't matter if her father hated her, if she was scorned by the royal family, if she didn't know who her mother was, or if she might never see her brother again. Not then. All that mattered was the horizon in front of them, Jack's body against hers, her still-tingling lips, and the adventure they would face next. Her life would never be the perfect sunset of romance sonnets or plays, but her pirate was standing with her and neither had to sacrifice anything. They were going to be okay, in the world of adventure and danger and fear and sadness. They would be okay. She smiled, and allowed her voice to mix with Jack's for the line of their lives, the song of their people, and the mantra of their mugs.

"_Drink up me hearties yo ho!"_

**This is Han, signing out.**


End file.
